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# glacier

noun (a glacier, glaciers)

«glacier» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. A glacier is a huge, thick mass of ice that moves very slowly over land, like a frozen river. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/glacier/#m1)
2. Glaciers form where more snow falls each year than melts, so the snow piles up and presses into ice. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/glacier/#m2)

### In the lessons

In science and geography glaciers appear in lessons about ice ages, mountains, valleys and climate change: they carve U-shaped valleys, carry rocks, and many are shrinking as the world warms. They store much of the world's fresh water. Phrases: «glacier melt», «retreating glacier», «glacier valley», «glacier ice».

### Examples

- A glacier moves only a few centimetres or metres a day. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/glacier/#x1)
- We saw a glacier on our trip to New Zealand. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/glacier/#x2)
- Long ago, glaciers covered much of Canada and northern Britain. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/glacier/#x3)
- The glacier carved a wide U-shaped valley. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/glacier/#x4)
- Many glaciers are melting because the climate is getting warmer. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/glacier/#x5)
- Icebergs break off glaciers that reach the sea. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/glacier/#x6)
- Walking on a glacier is dangerous because of hidden cracks called crevasses. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/glacier/#x7)
- Our teacher showed photos of the same glacier fifty years apart. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/glacier/#x8)
- They had only one more glacier to climb. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/glacier/#x9)

### Note

Countable: «a glacier», «two glaciers». Pronounced GLAY-see-er (UK also GLASS-ee-er). Adjective: «glacial» (also means very cold or very slow). Not the same as an iceberg (a piece floating in the sea) or an ice sheet (covering a whole land area, like Antarctica).

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «glacier» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/glacier/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«glacier» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/glacier.html) on Mova free.