cirque.

A steep-sided, bowl-shaped hollow carved in a mountain by glacial erosion.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• glacial cirque
• cirque wall

On the page

The lake lay within a cirque beneath the jagged ridge.

Snow lingered against the cirque wall after the valley thawed.

Usage notes

Primary category: environment. Forms: Singular cirque; plural cirques. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.