Cavern

//ˈkav.ən// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A large cave.
  2. 2
    a large cave or a large chamber in a cave wordnet
  3. 3
    An underground chamber.

    "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree: / Where Alph, the sacred river, ran / Through caverns measureless to man / Down to a sunless sea."

  4. 4
    any large dark enclosed space wordnet
  5. 5
    A large, dark place or space.

    "a dark cavern of a shop"

Verb
  1. 1
    To form a cavern or deep depression in. transitive

    "catacombs caverning the hillsides"

  2. 2
    hollow out as if making a cavern wordnet
  3. 3
    To put into a cavern. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
abriantreboxbunkerburrowbuttonhole

Example

More examples

"A dragon lives inside the cavern."

Etymology

From Middle English caverne, borrowing from Old French caverne, from Latin caverna (“hollow, cavity, cave”), from cavus (“hollow, excavated, concave”).

Related phrases

cave expandednatural tunnel

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.