igloo

or ig·lu

[ig-loo]

noun, plural ig·loos.

an Eskimo house, being a dome-shaped hut usually built of blocks of hard snow.

Informal. any dome-shaped construction thought to resemble an igloo: immense silos topped with steel igloos.

Military. a dome-shaped building for the storage of rockets or other munitions.

an excavation made by a seal in the snow over its breathing hole in the ice.

Origin of igloo

First recorded in 1855–60, igloo is from the Inuit word iglu house

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

British Dictionary definitions for iglu

igloo

iglu

noun plural -loos or -lus

a dome-shaped Inuit house, usually built of blocks of solid snow

a hollow made by a seal in the snow over its breathing hole in the ice

Word Origin for igloo

C19: from Inuktitut igdlu house

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for iglu

igloo

1824, Canadian English, from an Eskimo word for "house, dwelling" (cf. Greenlandic igdlo "house").