Congelifraction
//kənˈd͡ʒɛlɪˌfɹækʃən// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 the weathering of material through the repeated freezing and thawing of water. uncountable
"The rubble is produced by intense frost riving, or congelifraction (Bryan, 1946, p. 640), of the bedrock."
Example
More examples"The rubble is produced by intense frost riving, or congelifraction (Bryan, 1946, p. 640), of the bedrock."
Etymology
Coined by Kirk Bryan in 1946 in "Cryopedology—the study of frozen ground and intensive frost action with suggestions on nomenclature" in the American Journal of Science, volume 244, pages 622–642.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.