rampart
Americannoun
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Fortification.
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a broad elevation or mound of earth raised as a fortification around a place and usually capped with a stone or earth parapet.
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such an elevation together with the parapet.
-
-
anything serving as a bulwark or defense.
- Synonyms:
- guard, barricade, breastwork, fortification
verb (used with object)
noun
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the surrounding embankment of a fort, often including any walls, parapets, walks, etc, that are built on the bank
-
anything resembling a rampart in form or function, esp in being a defence or bulwark
-
a steep rock wall in a river gorge
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
rampartsimple
-
rampartssimple
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have rampartedperfect
-
has rampartedperfect
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am rampartingprogressive
-
are rampartingprogressive
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is rampartingprogressive
-
have been rampartingperfect progressive
-
has been rampartingperfect progressive
Past
-
rampartedsimple
-
had rampartedperfect
-
was rampartingprogressive
-
were rampartingprogressive
-
had been rampartingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rampart
1575–85; < Middle French, derivative of remparer, equivalent to re- re- + emparer to take possession of < Provençal amparar ≪ Latin ante- ante- + parāre to prepare
Explanation
If you are building a sand castle and want it to be extra realistic, don’t forget the rampart. This protective wall may not keep the ocean away, but it might intimidate a few hostile hermit crabs. This noun is derived from the French verb remparer, meaning “to fortify,” and dates back to the 16th century. This usually refers to a large defensive wall surrounding a castle, but can be a barrier built along a road or an embankment constructed alongside a river. This word is famously used in the lyrics of "The Star-Spangled Banner," the national anthem of the United States: “O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming...”
Vocabulary lists containing rampart
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The Star-Spangled Banner
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"The Cask of Amontillado"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
On top of this base, turf would have been laid to build a rampart about 2 metres high.
From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2023
One of them, “View From the Citadel Ramparts in Copenhagen by Moonlight,” shows two sailors and a soldier standing on the rampart of a citadel that was battered during the Napoleonic Wars.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 3, 2023
Up close, the structure, which will cost as much as $40 million, looks less like a dune and more like a rampart.
From New York Times ● Nov. 2, 2022
More than just a simple barrier, Hadrian’s Wall was a cleverly designed military rampart manned by 20,000 troops.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 11, 2018
On the inside of the rampart and in the wide crenel between two upthrust merlons.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
This laid-back, cafe-laden ledge is located above the beaches and ancient ramparts where the Douro River pours through its last, lovely tributaries into the Atlantic Ocean.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
The tilted-over towers overlooking the palace moat have all been brought back upright, and workers are building new brick castellations for their supporting ramparts.
From Barron's ● Mar. 26, 2026
“We wanted to be outsiders on the ramparts picking off the big shots,” Carter writes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2025
Anyone who hopes to preserve the sanctity of the civil-military ideal would do well to circle the wagons of law and constitutionalism and man the ramparts of institutional self-preservation.
From Salon ● Jan. 12, 2025
She could see the angel Xaphania gliding above the landing ground, and then rising and wheeling up to the tower as the craft made for the ramparts.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
We visited rambling, ramparted castles like the massive Llansteffan, framed by cerulean skies overlooking the sea, and we walked through landscapes where thick hedgerows line country lanes.
From New York Times ● Mar. 20, 2014
His faith was as firm as the bluffs that ramparted the fort, and his old heart was unafraid.
From The Plow-Woman by Gates, Eleanor
Step by step he fought his way up, over breastworks and rifle pits, felled trees and bowlders, through ravines and gullies, till the vanguard reached the giant palisades of rock which ramparted the top.
From Captains of the Civil War; a chronicle of the blue and the gray by Wood, William Charles Henry
The site is ramparted and habitable where the ovens stand.
The Rounds have been cut across by a road, but there are distinct traces of two ramparted circles, with some remains of a sheltering earthwork to the west.
From The Cornwall Coast by Salmon, Arthur L. (Arthur Leslie)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
