Dictionary

nunatak en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈnʌn.ə.tæk/
• /ˈnuː.nə.tæk/

Etymology

Borrowed from Greenlandic nunataq.

Meanings

1. A mountain top or rocky element of a ridge that is surrounded by glacial ice but is not covered by ice; a peak protruding from the surface ice sheet.
   • Only a few lichens and mosses colonize the rocky walls of cirques and nunataks. 2008, Andrea M. J. Coronato, Fernando Coronato, Elizabeth Mazzoni, Miriam Vásquez, “The Physical Geography of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego”, in J. Rabassa, editor, The Late Cenozoic of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 45:
   • The peak in whose lee you have chosen to set up your command post is far too regular in shape to be the nunatak you imagine it. 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, page 155:
   • We made for a slope close to the end of the island or nunatak, where Shackleton must have got up also; it is obviously the only place when you look at it from a commanding rise. 1922, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic 1910-1913, volume 2, Constable and Company Ltd., page 365:

Forms

Relateds

monadnock

Translations (11)

sk nunatak (mountaintop surrounded by glacial ice) · uk нуната́к (mountaintop surrounded by glacial ice) · fr nunatak (mountaintop surrounded by glacial ice) · fi nunatak (mountaintop surrounded by glacial ice) · de Nunatak (mountaintop surrounded by glacial ice) · fo jøkulfjall (mountaintop surrounded by glacial ice) · kl nunataq (mountaintop surrounded by glacial ice) · cy nwnatac (mountaintop surrounded by glacial ice) · ru нуната́к (mountaintop surrounded by glacial ice) · da nunatak (mountaintop surrounded by glacial ice) · pl nunatak (mountaintop surrounded by glacial ice)