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• glen
  glen

  noun

  a small, narrow, secluded valley.
• Glen
  Glen

  noun

  a male or female given name.

glen

¹ American  

[glen] / glɛn /

noun

• glens
  plural

1. a small, narrow, secluded valley.

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Glen ² American  

[glen] / glɛn /

noun

1. a male or female given name.

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glen British  

/ ɡlɛn /

noun

1. a narrow and deep mountain valley, esp in Scotland or Ireland

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• glenlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• glens
  plural

Etymology

Origin of glen

1480–90; < Irish, Scots Gaelic gleann; cognate with Welsh glynn

Explanation

A glen is a narrow valley deep in the mountains. Glens often form streams. The top of a mountain is the peak, and the lower parts are valleys. A glen is a valley that's narrow and secluded—it’s deep in the mountains. A glen could form a stream, or it could be lush and green. If you are on top of a mountain looking down, you may see several glens.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

glen Glen glens

Ms Potter opened the page to find Iona - a text-to-speech programme marketed as a red haired woman standing in a Scottish glen.

From BBC ● May 27, 2025

Davy says there were similar properties that once dotted the glen.

From BBC ● Nov. 24, 2023

Each non-Pee-wee appearance required the audience to recalibrate our expectations and remove Reubens from the glen plaid suits and pomade-slicked hairdo for which we came to know him.

From Salon ● Aug. 1, 2023

Indeed, consumers may want their vehicles not only to look good in, say, a wooded glen, but also to project the very idea that they care about wooded glens.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 7, 2023

When the boys began to gather in the glen of a Summer night, And the Kerry piper’s tuning made us long with wild delight.

From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt

A public wake is being held in Dublin for the Irish singer and songwriter Glen Hansard ahead of his funeral tomorrow.

From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026

State laws can make it difficult for communities to recover money from delinquent residents, said Glen Weinberg, founder of Fairview Commercial Lending.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026

A public wake will be held for Glen Hansard in Dublin on Monday 3 August followed by his funeral the following day.

From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026

Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, best known for starring in the 2007 indie darling “Once” and winning an Oscar for “Falling Slowly,” the film’s original song along with co-star Markéta Irglová, has died.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026

That he was no longer welcome at Shady Glen.

From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman

There will likely be no vistas of forest canopy, no shaded glens with water cascading through a tapestry of conifers, pine sap spicing the morning air.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 28, 2025

But the organisation said finding meteorites would be difficult in a vast area of mountains and glens.

From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2025

Some people tried to escape in a snow blizzard to nearby glens, including Gleann Leac-na-muidhe, where the coin hoard was found.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2023

Although most of the park fills up daily with birthday parties, off-leash dogs, and brass bands, it’s also home to a network of shady glens, murmuring creeks, and still ponds.

From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2023

There were no natural glens in all of Bakersfield.

From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan