a department of S France, in Midi-Pyrénées region. Capital: Albi. Pop: 350 477 (2003 est). Area: 5780 sq km (2254 sq miles)
a river in SW France, rising in the Massif Central and flowing generally west to the Garonne River. Length: 375 km (233 miles)
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. )
A mountain pool that forms in a hollow scooped out by a glacier is called a tarn. Officially, tarns are smaller than lakes. Another name for a tarn is a corrie loch, from the Scottish Gaelic coire, or "pot," and loch, "lake." These glacier-formed pools are found all over the world, from New York's Adirondack Mountains to the Tatras Mountains in Slovakia. The word tarn comes from the Old Norse tjörn, "small mountain lake with no tributaries."
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
An invasive alligator snapping turtle has been pulled from a Cumbrian tarn.
From BBC ● Feb. 9, 2024
A lake that is confined to a glacial cirque is known as a tarn such as Silver Lake near Brighton Ski resort located in Big Cottonwood Canyon or Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2017
I learned that a tarn is a pond, a gill is a stream, and duckboards are slats across boggy ground.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 19, 2015
When we came upon a tarn, or alpine lake, we stopped in our tracks, entranced by an oval frame of water reflecting dark forest, blue skies and the snow-covered ridges of mountain peaks.
From New York Times ● Aug. 19, 2011
In one place a forest of giant madrone trees joined their tops over a true tarn, a black, spring-fed lake.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
A dog walker found the exotic creature, which is native to swamps and rivers in southern parts of the US, in Urswick Tarn, near Ulverston, on Monday.
From BBC ● Feb. 9, 2024
Tarn and Zach also discuss the intricate details of the game and the gigantic number of narrative possibilities that players can experience.
From Slate ● Feb. 26, 2023
"We must continue with the reforms," said Macron on Thursday, during a visit to the southern French region of Tarn.
From Reuters ● Jun. 9, 2022
There, for several months, her father was part of a Jewish resistance movement, helping to ferry men and messages to units in the Tarn region.
From New York Times ● May 23, 2022
"The Black Tarn is full of the great fish," the Enchanted Cow declared.
From The Cassowary What Chanced in the Cleft Mountains by Waterloo, Stanley
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.
