Meaning & use
dune
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Meaning
nouncountable
A hill or ridge of sand built up by the wind, especially in deserts or near beaches.
Grammar: Countable: you can say a dune, the dunes, or dunes; use the plural for a whole area of them.
Patterns
- a sand dune
- the dunes
- a dune of sand
We climbed to the top of the dune to watch the sunset.
The wind slowly moves the sand from one side of the dune to the other.
Grass was planted along the coast to keep the dunes from shifting.
Word forms
| plural | dunes |
|---|
Common combinations
- sand dune
- The children slid down the steep sand dune.
- a ridge of dunes
- A long ridge of dunes separates the beach from the road.
- climb a dune
- It took us an hour to climb the highest dune.
- dunes shift
- The dunes shift a little with every strong wind.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sand hill
- A general, descriptive phrase; dune is the usual scientific and everyday word for wind-formed sand hills.
Word family
- duney adjective
- Rare and informal: covered with or resembling dunes (e.g. duney grass).
Commonly confused: dune or doom? dune or dun?
dune vs doom
Doom means a terrible fate or destruction; dune is only the sand hill. They sound similar in some accents, so check the vowel.
dune vs dun
Dun is a dull grayish-brown color or, as a verb, to demand payment; it is not a landform.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses dune correctly.
Choose one answer.
A dune is a sand hill, so you can walk across it and sink into its sand. Option A confuses it with a wave, C uses it as a verb (it is a noun), and D uses it for a group of birds.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dune”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.