Definitions

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

  • noun A hill or ridge of wind-blown sand.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An ancient fort with a hemispherical or conical roof.
  • noun A mound, ridge, or hill of loose sand, heaped up by the wind on the sea-coast, or rarely on the shore of a large lake, as on Lake Superior.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A low hill of drifting sand usually formed on the coats, but often carried far inland by the prevailing winds.

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

  • noun geomorphology A ridge or hill of sand piled up by the wind.

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

  • noun a ridge of sand created by the wind; found in deserts or near lakes and oceans

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French, from Middle Dutch dūne; see dheuə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Cognate with Old and Modern French dune, Middle Dutch dūne, Dutch duin, compare English down.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word dune.

Examples

  • Whether you want to ride the dunes in dune buggies or tear them up with an ATV, this park will accommodate your needs.

    Five Best Things to Do in Oklahoma | myFiveBest 2009

  • In effect, he cannot tell a sand dune from a sandworm.

    May 6th, 2009 m_francis 2009

  • I saw them a couple weeks ago at CMJ, learned how to pronounce their name dune-yen, not dungeon, and found them strangely entertaining.

    another night, another battle | Seattle Metblogs 2005

  • That tee, once 60 yards from the edge of the dune, is now just two yards from a 40-foot drop into the ocean.

    USATODAY.com - Erosion threatens legendary British courses 2001

  • This contact between the Kayenta Formation and Navajo Sandstone illustrates the local switch from a fluvial environment, periodically inundated with tongues of sand erg deposits, to a permanent onset of long term dune activity

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Joseph J. W. Sertich et al. 2010

  • 11: 27 AM happyseaurchin said ... dune is astounding ...

    "Dune", Plus Often-Neglected Other Novels by Frank Herbert 2009

  • "Minister van Schalkwyk's commitment addresses the potential impact of two proposed projects on Pondoland, namely dune mining along the coast, and the construction of the N2 toll road," he said.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2004

  • At the foot of the dune were the Shipwreck Tavern and other commercial buildings built of logs, or concrete cast and painted to resemble logs.

    The Cat Who Sang For The Birds Braun, Lilian Jackson 1998

  • Lyle Compton had called the dune-dwellers a giddy bunch, and their chitchat about UFOs and horoscopes confirmed that opinion.

    The Cat Who Went Underground Braun, Lilian Jackson 1989

  • Now, any dictionary or Scotchman will tell you that a dune is a hill of loose sand.

    Fanny Herself 1917

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Philatelic term for the Arab microstates that around 1970 flooded the children's stamp-collecting market with brightly coloured gummed labels purporting to be postage stamps.

    January 5, 2009

  • Ha ha! I remember those. Bloody Sharjah and Fujairah!

    January 6, 2009