Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • A river, about 245 km (150 mi) long, of northern France flowing west and northwest to the English Channel. Tanks were first used in warfare during the devastating Battle of the Somme (1916).

from The Century Dictionary.

  • An old spelling of some, sum.
  • In heraldry:
  • Same as horned.
  • Same as surmounted.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun One of the départements of Picardie, France

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun battle of World War II (1944)
  • noun battle in World War I (1916)

Etymologies

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Examples

  • "The Missing of the Somme" is a lyrical meditation on memory and the meaning of World War I.

    Their Name Still Liveth Joanna Scutts 2011

  • Then I caught a second TV documentary, about another World War I battle, this one also in the north of France, at a place called Somme, which resulted in 1.5 million casualties.

    Dancing with the Devil Louis Diaz 2010

  • Then I caught a second TV documentary, about another World War I battle, this one also in the north of France, at a place called Somme, which resulted in 1.5 million casualties.

    Dancing with the Devil Louis Diaz 2010

  • Then I caught a second TV documentary, about another World War I battle, this one also in the north of France, at a place called Somme, which resulted in 1.5 million casualties.

    Dancing with the Devil Louis Diaz 2010

  • The Somme is the first ship of the French naval task force to undergo maintenance and repair in Simon's Town.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1996

  • A fortified farm called Somme had been captured, and that was about all.

    The Story of the "9th King's" in France Enos Herbert Glynne Roberts

  • While he was organizing his army, which was to be called, with unconscious irony, "The Army of Pursuit" -- the battles of the Somme were a siege rather than a pursuit -- he desired to take over the chateau at Tilques, in which the war correspondents were then quartered.

    Now It Can Be Told Philip Gibbs 1919

  • The battle of the Somme was the most favorable for solitary airplanes, or airplanes coupled like hunting-dogs.

    Georges Guynemer Bordeaux, Henry, 1870- 1918

  • The Marne, the Meuse, and the Somme are the Rivers of Valour.

    An African Adventure Isaac Frederick Marcosson 1918

  • The introduction to the Somme was a rude awakening.

    Flying for France. With the American Escadrille at Verdun James Rogers 1917

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