Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. See cirque.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A round valley-head inclosed on all sides but one by steep slopes; a corrie; a cirque. The typical cwms of the Welsh mountains have been shaped by glacial erosion.
Wiktionary
- n. A valley head created through glacial erosion and with a shape similar to an amphitheatre.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a steep-walled semicircular basin in a mountain; may contain a lake
Etymologies
- Welsh, valley.
Examples
“Those languages don't help, however, with her favorite word, "cwm," from a Welsh word for valley.”
“Auditions for the chair of the new cwm taf trust who thought of that name?”
“She is also a committed socialist, and a chair for cwm cynon women's aid co-ordinating committee.”
“Do pop by to the Pobl y cwm bar if you get a chance later, Glyn.”
“All our deeper hollows are called the same at home, and even the Welsh have the word, but they spell it _cwm_; it is their mountain way.”
“A radiance now came pouring through the eastern opening down the gorge or cwm itself, and soon the light vapours floating about the pool were turned to sailing gauzes, all quivering with different dyes, as though a rainbow had become torn from the sky and woven into gossamer hangings and set adrift.”
“I believe the whole compound is the Cornish _Pen y cwm gwic_, ‘Head of the creek valley.’”
Chips From A German Workshop. Vol. III. Essays on Literature, Biography, and Antiquities
“Reasoner for the AIR policy language, based on cwm last change”
“The south face rises 8k ft from above the western cwm of the Khumbu glacier on the Nepal side.”
“Slide 3: Corries (= cirque, cwm) • Start as sheltered hollows near the top of a mountain • Snow collects in the hollow (snow fields = neves).”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cwm’.
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WWF WTF?
Ever play "Words With Friends" with someone and they throw down some strange, unlikely group of letters that makes even the most mild and squeaky clean tongued person say "whiskey tango foxtrot"? ...
oorie, sangar, merl, cwm, doum, weir, jura, invar, lawine, tapa, waw, shog and 374 more...
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Words without the letter E
chord, slur, anabaptist, anabolic, diabolic, turbid, torpid, somniloquist, trump, bipolar, dioxin, hydrocarbon and 107 more...
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Geology Words
The descriptive science described.
earth, lithosphere, mineral, convection, heat flow, ore, deep time, fossil, formation, rock, tectonics, extinction and 256 more...
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All Things Scrabble
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Water always flows downhill
The path of least resistance, watercourses, plumbing....
swale, hollow, creek, crick, depression, holler, draw, ditch, corrie, cwm, continental divide, stream and 66 more...
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Annoying words that are surprisingly acceptable...
Those foreign, abbreviated, hyphenated, or capitalized words that make you want to scream "aa" and throw the board at your opponent.
aa, za, qat, amu, tranq, memsahib, ka, jefe, biz, fem, qi, zaire and 3 more...
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light
words pertaining to light or lack there of
apricity, luminiferous, penumbral, caliginous, gloaming, scoteography, cwm, nyctalopia
RubinSchneider this one has been a boon in many a scrabble game Feb 11, 2012
yarb I love machubchub! Jun 15, 2011
mikeoregon This word came up when my English teacher claimed there were no words without vowels--she was surprised to learn about cwm! Our language hoovers up words from so many places you can find almost any odd example you can think of. I'd like us to start using the Amharic verb "machubchub" to describe the sound of swishing a liquid inside your mouth. :^ ) Jun 15, 2011
bilby My lips are sealed. Oct 8, 2008
treeseed See cirque and corrie Jan 25, 2008
jennarenn You used this in hangman? Ooooh, that is pure evil. Was the person a professed logophile or know-it-all? Feb 19, 2007
colleen esh, have you ever played hangman with a Welshman? :) Dec 18, 2006