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nunatak

[nuhn-uh-tak]
noun
  1. a hill or mountain that has been completely encircled by a glacier.
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Origin of nunatak

1875–80; < Inuit (West Greenlandic) nunataq
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for nunatak

Historical Examples of nunatak

  • At each end of the nunatak there was a very fine bergschrund.

    The Home of the Blizzard

    Douglas Mawson

  • The second nunatak was on the course; a sharp peak in the south, hidden by the contour of the uprising ridges.

  • In the centre of the bay was a nunatak, which from its shape at once received the name of the Alligator.

  • Two Indians carried the baggage over the rocky moraine to the clear glacier at the side of one of the eastern Nunatak Islands.

  • Later I climbed the large Nunatak Island, seven thousand feet high, near the west margin of the glacier.

British Dictionary definitions for nunatak

nunatak

noun
  1. an isolated mountain peak projecting through the surface of surrounding glacial ice and supporting a distinct fauna and flora after recession of the ice
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Word Origin for nunatak

C19: via Danish from Inuktitut
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