Tarn
1 Americannoun
noun
noun
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012noun
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a department of S France, in Midi-Pyrénées region. Capital: Albi. Pop: 350 477 (2003 est). Area: 5780 sq km (2254 sq miles)
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a river in SW France, rising in the Massif Central and flowing generally west to the Garonne River. Length: 375 km (233 miles)
Etymology
Origin of tarn
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English terne, tarne, from Old Norse tjǫrn “pond, pool.” Tarn was originally restricted to northern English dialects (where the Danes settled) or in written works about northern England. Tarn entered mainstream English in the works of the Lake Poets ( def. )
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.
The Alpine Lakes Wilderness, the chunk of national forest in the Central Cascades where you’ll find these shimmering aquatic delights, lives up to its name with more than 700 lakes, ponds and tarns.
From Seattle Times
The area where the afternoon tea was found on Monday, between Great Langdale and Little Langdale, is considered one of the most spectacular of the many Lakeland tarns.
From BBC
Groups were camping by tarns, with "fires on summit cairns" and 20 people were "partying" on a fell, they said.
From BBC
I looked over from the Pouakai tarns, past the swampland that connects this range to the great peak, but “he” was shrouded in cloud – explained by Māoris as Taranaki crying for his lost love.
From The Guardian
A spiderweb of small rivers form, cutting channels in the ice and spilling into a series of glacial tarns at the mouth of the basin.
From Scientific American
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.
