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

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

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)

But this scene of marvellous grandeur and desolation was not given over to silence, for ever and anon the fall of a mighty sérac would boom forth with a thunderous roar.

From Fordham's Feud by Mitford, Bertram

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

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

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

They passed above this, and between it and the great séracs.

From The Ascent of the Matterhorn by Whymper, Edward

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

From Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 6 Germany, Austria-Hungary and Switzerland, part 2 by Halsey, Francis W. (Francis Whiting)

His writings were what packed dates might be to one who sat for the first time under a palm in some far oäsis; they were but ice in a tumbler compared with séracs.

From A Tramp's Notebook by Roberts, Morley