Meaning & use
cairn
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A pile of stones set up by people to mark a path, a summit or a boundary.
Grammar: Countable: a cairn, a line of cairns; you build or add a stone to one.
Patterns
- a cairn on something
- build a cairn
We followed the line of cairns across the foggy moor.
Every hiker who reached the summit added a stone to the cairn.
A small cairn marked the place where the trail turned left.
nouncountablespecialist
A heap of stones raised as a memorial or over a grave, especially in ancient times.
Grammar: Countable; in archaeology it is often used for prehistoric burial mounds.
Patterns
- a burial cairn
- a cairn to someone
Archaeologists uncovered a Bronze Age cairn on the hilltop.
The family built a cairn in memory of their grandfather.
A cairn on the headland recalls the sailors lost in the storm.
nouncountable
A small, rough-haired terrier dog originally bred in Scotland; also called a cairn terrier.
Grammar: Countable; the full name of the breed is cairn terrier.
Patterns
- a cairn terrier
Her cairn barked at every squirrel in the park.
Cairns are small but surprisingly tough dogs.
Word forms
| plural | cairns |
|---|
Common combinations
- build a cairn
- The scouts built a cairn at the top of the hill.
- stone cairn
- A stone cairn stood beside the path.
- summit cairn
- We rested at the summit cairn before heading down.
- burial cairn
- The burial cairn is nearly four thousand years old.
- mark with a cairn
- They marked the route with a cairn at each turning.
- cairn terrier
- The cairn terrier trotted happily beside her owner.
Synonyms and how they differ
- mound
- A mound is any rounded heap of earth or stones and does not suggest the careful stacking or marking purpose of a cairn.
- stack
- Stack just means a tidy pile of things and can be of anything, while a cairn is always stones with a purpose.
- waymarker
- A waymarker is any sign that shows a route, such as a post, whereas a cairn is specifically made of piled stones.
- monument
- A monument is a larger formal structure for remembering someone, so it is grander than a simple memorial cairn.
Word family
- cairn terrier noun
- a small, shaggy dog breed from Scotland
Commonly confused: cairn or cairns?
cairn vs cairns
Cairns is the plural of cairn, and also the name of a city in Queensland, Australia, pronounced /kænz/.
Practice
In the fog, the hikers found the path by following small piles of stacked stones called ______.
Choose one answer.
Cairns are piles of stones that mark a route. Cabins are huts, calderas are volcanic craters, and canyons are valleys, so none can be stacked to mark a path.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cairn”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.