Cwm
//kuːm// name, noun
name, noun ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A valley head created through glacial erosion and with a shape similar to an amphitheatre.
"A fine glacier descends from Mount Longstaff. It has cut very deep and the walls stand at an angle of at least 50°. Otherwise, although there are many cwms on the lower ranges, the mountains themselves seem little carved."
- 2 Initialism of Cincinnati water maze. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 3 a steep-walled semicircular basin in a mountain; may contain a lake wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 A village and community in Blaenau Gwent borough county borough, Wales (OS grid ref SO1805).
- 2 A small village and community in Denbighshire, Wales (OS grid ref SJ0677).
Example
More examples"A fine glacier descends from Mount Longstaff. It has cut very deep and the walls stand at an angle of at least 50°. Otherwise, although there are many cwms on the lower ranges, the mountains themselves seem little carved."
Etymology
Etymology 1
Unadapted borrowing from Welsh cwm (“valley”). Doublet of combe.
Etymology 2
From Welsh cwm.
More for "cwm"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.