sérac

American  

[si-rak, say-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

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Etymology

Origin of sérac

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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sérac séracs

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 Hudson Stuck

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 Hudson Stuck

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 A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason

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 A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason

Their route led them along the foot of a line of towering and trembling séracs.

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

“How would you have got along those séracs just now, for instance, if left to yourselves?”

From Fordham's Feud by Bertram Mitford

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

From The Silent Barrier by Louis Tracy

Later during that day amongst the séracs of the Col du Géant, Simond uttered a shout, and a party of guides returning to Chamonix changed their course toward him.

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

The word crevassed hardly expresses its appearance—it was a mass of formidable séracs.

From The Ascent of the Matterhorn by Edward Whymper

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