CAIRN
What does "CAIRN" mean?
A heap of stones piled up as a landmark, trail marker, or memorial.
Meanings
- A mound of stones raised as a marker, monument, or to mark a path across open ground. Above the tree line, hikers follow a line of cairns to the summit.
- An ancient burial mound built of stones. Archaeologists dated the Bronze Age cairn to roughly 1500 BC. technical
Did you know?
- The Cairn Terrier - the breed that played Toto in The Wizard of Oz - is literally named after stone cairns, because the little dogs were bred to bolt foxes and rats out of the rock piles of the Scottish Highlands.
Word origin
From Scottish Gaelic 'carn' ('a heap of stones'), related to Welsh 'carn'; the word entered English largely through Scotland's mountain landscape.
Remember it
CAIRN sounds like 'cairn' = 'care-in' - each stone someone carefully placed IN the pile to guide the next traveler.
A little poem
Stone on stone, no mortar,
just strangers agreeing, year by year,
this is the way up.
tercet
What it teaches
A path is just the patience of everyone who passed before, each leaving one stone behind.
Quick facts
What does CAIRN mean?
A heap of stones piled up as a landmark, trail marker, or memorial.
Is CAIRN a valid word?
Yes — CAIRN is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is CAIRN?
CAIRN has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does CAIRN come from?
From Scottish Gaelic 'carn' ('a heap of stones'), related to Welsh 'carn'; the word entered English largely through Scotland's mountain landscape.
What can CAIRN teach us?
A path is just the patience of everyone who passed before, each leaving one stone behind.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.