Meaning & use
cavern
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Meaning
nouncountable
A very large cave, especially a deep, hollow space underground.
Grammar: Countable: a cavern, two caverns. Often used in descriptive or literary contexts.
Patterns
- a deep cavern
- an underground cavern
- explore a cavern
The explorers discovered a vast cavern beneath the mountain.
The cavern was so large that it could hold a whole village.
Bats flew out of the dark cavern at sunset.
Word forms
| plural | caverns |
|---|
Common combinations
- underground cavern
- The underground cavern was filled with stalactites.
- vast cavern
- They stood in awe inside the vast cavern.
- dark cavern
- The flashlight barely lit the dark cavern.
- cavern wall
- Ancient paintings covered the cavern walls.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- cavernous adjective
- Like a cavern; very large, deep, and hollow.
Commonly confused: cavern or cave?
cavern vs cave
Cave is the everyday word for any underground hole; cavern is used for a large, dramatic cave.
Practice
The guide led us into a huge ______ where the ceiling was lost in darkness.
Choose one answer.
A cavern is a very large cave, which fits the description of a huge space with a high ceiling. 'Cave' is more general, 'hole' is too small, and 'tunnel' is a passage, not a large open space.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cavern”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.