Counterfort

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A buttress built against a wall.

    "This involved new track drainage, strengthening of embankments and cuttings and the provision of counterforts."

  2. 2
    A spur of a mountain range.

    "With its counterforts projecting some 300 miles, [the Pamir] forms the western headland of all the plateaux and mountain systems skirting the Chinese Empire; it completely separates the two halves of Asia, and forms an almost impassable barrier to migration and warlike incursions."

Synonyms

All synonyms
contrefortbuttressbuttress

Example

More examples

"This involved new track drainage, strengthening of embankments and cuttings and the provision of counterforts."

Etymology

From Middle French contrefort.

More for "counterfort"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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