Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun 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.

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

  • noun A valley head created through glacial erosion and with a shape similar to an amphitheatre.

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

  • noun a steep-walled semicircular basin in a mountain; may contain a lake

Etymologies

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

[Welsh, valley.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Welsh cwm ("valley").

Support

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

Examples

  • Those languages don't help, however, with her favorite word, "cwm," from a Welsh word for valley.

    IndyStar.com Top Stories 2010

  • Do pop by to the Pobl y cwm bar if you get a chance later, Glyn.

    Bag of Nerves Glyn Davies 2007

  • Auditions for the chair of the new cwm taf trust who thought of that name?

    Update - another Trust Merger announced Valleys Mam 2007

  • She is also a committed socialist, and a chair for cwm cynon women's aid co-ordinating committee.

    Archive 2007-04-01 2007

  • 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.

    The Path to Rome Hilaire Belloc 1911

  • 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.

    Aylwin Theodore Watts-Dunton 1873

  • 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 1861

  • Reasoner for the AIR policy language, based on cwm last change

    Semantic Web Interest Group Scratchpad 2010

  • The south face rises 8k ft from above the western cwm of the Khumbu glacier on the Nepal side.

    California Literary Review 2009

  • The south face rises 8k ft from above the western cwm of the Khumbu glacier on the Nepal side.

    California Literary Review 2009

Comments

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

  • esh, have you ever played hangman with a Welshman? :)

    December 18, 2006

  • You used this in hangman? Ooooh, that is pure evil. Was the person a professed logophile or know-it-all?

    February 19, 2007

  • See cirque and corrie

    January 26, 2008

  • My lips are sealed.

    October 8, 2008

  • 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. :^ )

    June 15, 2011

  • I love machubchub!

    June 15, 2011

  • this one has been a boon in many a scrabble game

    February 11, 2012

  • How does one pronounce "cwm?"

    January 1, 2013

  • I suppose clicking on the pronunciation link after you have cleaned your ears would be a useful guide.

    January 1, 2013

  • Meg seeks cwm becks. 'Cwm' is possibly the only English word made solely of prime-numbered letters (bcegkmqsw) that doesn't contain an E. Seriously, does no-one have a list of prime-lettered words . . . or a word for them? (Primogram?)

    March 31, 2016

  • I nominate qroqqa to make that list for us!

    March 31, 2016

  • beseem emcees becks seems...

    The scrabble and anagram solver sites can help.

    March 31, 2016