iceberg

American  

[ahys-burg] / ˈaɪs bɜrg /

noun

• icebergs
  plural

1. a large floating mass of ice, detached from a glacier and carried out to sea.

2. Informal. an emotionally cold person.

3. Australian Informal. a person who swims or surfs regularly in winter.

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idioms

1. tip of the iceberg, the first hint or revelation of something larger or more complex.

   The new evidence in the case is just the tip of the iceberg.

iceberg British  

/ ˈaɪsbɜːɡ /

noun

1. a large mass of ice floating in the sea, esp a mass that has broken off a polar glacier

2. the small visible part of something, esp a problem or difficulty, that is much larger

3. slang a person considered to have a cold or reserved manner

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iceberg Scientific  

/ īs′bûrg′ /

1. A massive body of floating ice that has broken away from a glacier or ice field. Most of an iceberg lies underwater, but because ice is not as dense as water, about one ninth of it remains above the surface.

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iceberg Cultural  

1. A large piece of ice that has broken away from a glacier at the shore and floated out to sea.

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Discover More

Most of the ice in an iceberg is underwater, leaving only the “tip of the iceberg” visible — a fact that is often alluded to in discussions of subjects in which the most important aspects are hidden from view.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• icebergs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of iceberg

1765–75; half Anglicization, half adoption of Dutch ijsberg ice mountain; cognate with German Eisberg, Swedish isberg

Explanation

An iceberg is a huge chunk of ice that breaks off of a glacier and floats around the ocean. Most of an iceberg is under water and can't be seen; that's how a sneaky iceberg managed to sink the Titanic. Icebergs exist in the coldest waters on the planet — the largest icebergs ever observed have been in Antarctica. An iceberg is blamed in the famous sinking of the Titanic in 1912, and the disaster inspired a new system for tracking and measuring icebergs. Another kind of iceberg is the lettuce, which is crisp and nearly as pale as an actual iceberg. The colloquial "tip of the iceberg" means the smallest hint of a much larger problem.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

iceberg icebergs

Tides, winds, ocean currents, and melting will continue weakening the iceberg until it eventually fractures into smaller pieces.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026

Local resident Cheryl Treland told Wisconsin Public Radio in 2024 that the bog is "like an iceberg".

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026

Normally, O’Malley said, retailers buy iceberg lettuce in boxes of 12, each head weighing at least 400 grams, a little under a pound.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

The newly separated tabular iceberg broke away from Petermann Glacier's floating ice tongue and may be as much as 150 meters thick.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026

There is corn glistening with butter, and salads made from iceberg lettuce and tomatoes.

From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti

Although Antarctica is the largest ice sheet on Earth, direct evidence of glacial earthquakes caused by capsizing icebergs there has been elusive.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 30, 2026

"While large, tabular icebergs are relatively common in the Southern Ocean that surrounds the Antarctic Ice Sheet, Arctic ice islands are far rarer," explains Dr. Anna Crawford of the University of Stirling.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026

I instead recall coasting past a flotilla of icebergs in Alaska’s Glacier Bay.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

Massive waves of icebergs also repeatedly disrupted circulation in the North Atlantic during events known as Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich events.

From Science Daily ● May 27, 2026

I saw pieces of the great Greenland glacier cracking and falling into the sea to make icebergs.

From "Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story" by Michael Collins

Related Words

• abstract
• candid
• detached
• disinterested
• sober
• unbiased
• unemotional