sérac

American  

[si-rak, sey-rak] / sɪˈræk, seɪˈrak /

Or serac

noun

séracs plural

1. a large irregularity of glacial ice, as a pinnacle found in glacial crevasses and formed by melting or movement of the ice.

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sérac British  

/ ˈsɛræk /

noun

1. a pinnacle of ice among crevasses on a glacier, usually on a steep slope

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• séracs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of sérac

1855–60; < French sérac kind of white cheese (compare Medieval Latin serācium ), ultimately < Latin serum whey

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sérac séracs

For, only at rare times, when he stood high on a sérac, could he see his way for more than a few yards ahead.

From Running Water by Mason, A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley)

Huge blocks of ice were strewn upon it, ripped off the left-hand wall, but it was nowhere crevassed as badly as the lower glacier, but much more broken up into sérac.

From The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley) A Narrative of the First Complete Ascent of the Highest Peak in North America by Stuck, Hudson

A tourist descending from the Grands Mulets was passing, under an impending sérac, around the head of a crevasse, where the only footway was a few inches of ice hewn with the axe.

From McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 6, May, 1896 by Various

Beyond the chasm the ice rose in a blue straight wall for some three feet, and the upper edge was all crushed and battered; and then the track of the falling sérac ended.

From Running Water by Mason, A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley)

Here we were at the upper end of one of the flats of the glacier that fills the Grand Basin, the sérac of another great rise just above us.

From The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley) A Narrative of the First Complete Ascent of the Highest Peak in North America by Stuck, Hudson

A cluster of séracs on a neighboring icefall showed all their mad chaos.

From The Silent Barrier by Tracy, Louis

In an instant the whole line of séracs toppled from their bases and thundered down upon him.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, August 5th, 1914 by Various

From thence we went down to the right of the ridge,245 and mounted through the séracs of the Matterhorngletscher.

From The Ascent of the Matterhorn by Whymper, Edward

Yet the blue of the sky is repeated in the picture, for the towering séracs throw azure shadows on the satin-smooth snow slopes at their feet.

From Above the Snow Line by Dent, Clinton Thomas

Crevassed, broken, a wilderness of towering séracs, it had the look of a sea in a gale whose breakers had been frozen in the very act of over toppling.

From Running Water by Mason, A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley)