Dune

//djuːn// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A ridge or hill of sand piled up by currents of wind or water.

    "Heavy line segments (lengthened for clarity) indicate locations of deep-sea dunes."

  2. 2
    a ridge of sand created by the wind; found in deserts or near lakes and oceans wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
sand dunesand duneanthillbankbarrowbrae

Example

More examples

"From the tall dune I could see over the whole island."

Etymology

Partly from a dialectal form of down; and partly from French dune (from Old French dune), or from Middle Dutch dūne (modern Dutch duin), or from Middle Low German dûne; all ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *dūn, *dūnā, probably from Proto-Celtic *dūnom (“stronghold, rampart”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰuHnom (“enclosure”), from *dʰewh₂- (“to finish, come full circle”). Doublet of down (which see).

Related phrases

Pajaro Dunesdune buggydune coondune cricketice duneriver dune

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