Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

pingo

[ping-goh]
noun, plural pin·gos. Geology.
  1. a hill of soil-covered ice pushed up by hydrostatic pressure in an area of permafrost.
  2. a hill of similar origin remaining after the melting of permafrost.
Show More

Origin of pingo

First recorded in 1925–30, pingo is from the Inuit word pinguq
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for pingo

Historical Examples

  • But the man of course did not move or stand up with his pingo.

    Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon

    J. Emerson Tennent

  • There was a picture of a beautiful lady using Pingo, her face expressing rapture.

    If Winter Don't

    Barry Pain

British Dictionary definitions for pingo

pingo

noun plural -gos
  1. a mound of earth or gravel formed through pressure from a layer of water trapped between newly frozen ice and underlying permafrost in Arctic regions
Show More

Word Origin

C20: 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
pingo in Science

pingo

[pĭng′gō]
Plural pingos pingoes
  1. A large mound or dome of ice covered with soil. Pingos are about 30 to 50 m (98 to 164 ft) high and up to 400 m (1,312 ft) in diameter and are found in Arctic regions. They are believed to form in basins (such as drained lake beds) as a result of the freezing and upward expansion of water held in subsurface soil, which initiates the doming, as well as by the rising and freezing of water trapped beneath or within the permafrost, as a result of hydrostatic pressure.
Show More
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.