glacier

American  

[gley-sher] / ˈgleɪ ʃər /

noun

• glaciers
  plural

1. an extended mass of ice formed from snow falling and accumulating over the years and moving very slowly, either descending from high mountains, as in valley glaciers, or moving outward from centers of accumulation, as in continental glaciers.

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glacier British  

/ ˈɡlæsɪə, ˈɡleɪs- /

noun

1. a slowly moving mass of ice originating from an accumulation of snow. It can either spread out from a central mass ( continental glacier ) or descend from a high valley ( alpine glacier )

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glacier Scientific  

/ glā′shər /

1. A large mass of ice moving very slowly through a valley or spreading outward from a center. Glaciers form over many years from packed snow in areas where snow accumulates faster than it melts. A glacier is always moving, but when its forward edge melts faster than the ice behind it advances, the glacier as a whole shrinks backward.

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glacier Cultural  

1. A large mass of ice formed over many years that does not melt during the summer. Glaciers move slowly over an area of land such as a mountain valley.

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Discover More

A significant percentage of the water of the Earth is locked up in glaciers.

Glaciers exist in high mountains throughout the temperate zones and cover most of Antarctica. Glaciers recede during warm periods and can expand during cold periods, creating ice ages.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• glaciered
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• glaciers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of glacier

1735–45; < dialectal French, derivative of Old French glace ice < Late Latin glacia (for Latin glaciēs )

Explanation

A glacier is a very large ice mass, sometimes miles and miles long. Glaciers might not seem all that exciting at first, but people are paying close attention to them because their melting is an indication of climate change. Most glaciers on Earth are found around the North and South poles, but every continent except for Australia has glaciers somewhere in its high mountain ranges. People often want to go see glaciers because they're beautiful, and some you can actually hike across. Luckily, if you get thirsty glaciers are the planet’s largest reservoir of freshwater. You’ll just have to find some way of melting them . . .

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

glacier glaciers

Last year, a partial glacier collapse wiped out the Swiss Alps village of Blatten.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

"These hot conditions can also explain permafrost thaw and combined slope and glacier collapse," said French climatologist Valerie Masson-Delmotte.

From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026

Preliminary investigations have pointed to a collapsed glacier and its bedrock as the cause of last week's flash flood.

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

Virgin Islands, it marked the largest calving event from any Arctic glacier since 2020.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026

The effluent glacier seems to run on a long curve westerly up to the Gobrin plateau.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin

But the very glaciers and mountains giving Nepal this massive natural advantage are succumbing to global warming - and last Wednesday's deadly floods have laid bare the risks to the nation's hydropower ambitions.

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

The devastating flood in Nepal is the latest example of the threat posed by unstable glaciers to mountain towns and villages.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026

Anthony Bourdain’s beach-bum youth becomes a refreshing biopic, Ridley Scott directs a post-apocalyptic adventure, documentaries examine Boeing’s failures and Iceland’s glaciers, and much, much more.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

That is due to its location in the Himalayas, the world's highest mountain range, where glaciers are melting at rapid speed as the planet heats.

From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026

He failed to explain convincingly how mountain ranges were formed and overlooked glaciers as an agent of change.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

Related Words

• ice floe
• iceberg