: a heap of stones piled up as a memorial or as a landmark
Examples of cairn in a Sentence
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Stone cairns, serpentine walls, earthen mounds, balance rocks, ancient spring wells, and interesting stone enclosures have been identified as potential early cultural evidence of pre-European native use.
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Staff Report, Hartford Courant, 3 May 2025
The way forward is often indiscernible, with trail markers like signs, cairns, and ribbons, few and far between.
—Olivia James, Outside Online, 24 Apr. 2025
Most remarkable is the cairn-tomb of Gavrinis, one of Europe's great repositories of megalithic art, its interior replete with swirling patterns carved into the rock some 6,000 years ago.
—The Week Uk, theweek, 12 Oct. 2024
The bones excavated at the site were returned to King William Island in 1994 and interred in a memorial cairn.
—Katie Hunt, CNN, 11 Oct. 2024
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Staff Report, Hartford Courant, 3 May 2025
The way forward is often indiscernible, with trail markers like signs, cairns, and ribbons, few and far between.
—Olivia James, Outside Online, 24 Apr. 2025
Most remarkable is the cairn-tomb of Gavrinis, one of Europe's great repositories of megalithic art, its interior replete with swirling patterns carved into the rock some 6,000 years ago.
—The Week Uk, theweek, 12 Oct. 2024
The bones excavated at the site were returned to King William Island in 1994 and interred in a memorial cairn.
—Katie Hunt, CNN, 11 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for cairn
Cite this Entry
“Cairn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cairn. Accessed 20 May. 2025.
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cairn
noun
ˈka(ə)rn 
ˈke(ə)rn
: a heap of stones piled up as a landmark or as a memorial
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