barranca

noun

bar·​ran·​ca bə-ˈraŋ-kə How to pronounce barranca (audio)
variants or less commonly barranco
bə-ˈraŋ-(ˌ)kō How to pronounce barranca (audio)
plural barrancas also barrancos
Synonyms of barrancanext
1
: a deep gully or arroyo with steep sides
2
: a steep bank or bluff

Synonyms

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Examples of barranca in a Sentence

the intimidating barrancas that can be found in the Sierra Nevada
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
From a gnarly lie in the rough, his third shot from 116 yards found the barranca in front of the green. — Steve Gardner, USA TODAY, 16 June 2023 Clark held his nerve to the end and was right there with him, even after a rare errant shot into the barranca on the 17th. — Doug Ferguson, Chicago Tribune, 17 June 2023

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from American Spanish, from Spanish, feminine derivative of barranco "cliff, precipice, gully, ravine," of pre-Latin substratal origin

Note: Outcomes of a pre-Latin form *barrank-, with variants, are known primarily from Iberia and southern France, with outliers in Piedmont (Val Sesia baranca), Switzerland (Surselvan vraunca) and Calabria and Sicily (see references in Joan Coromines, Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, Madrid, 1984). Greek pharang-, pháranx "gully, chasm" seems inseparable from the Romance etymon (see note at pharynx)—all perhaps evidence of a trans-European substratal terrain term (or a pre-Indo-European Wanderwort?). The hypothesis of derivation with a suffix *-anka from a base *barr- "bar, barrier" (see bar entry 1) seems unlikely, despite forms such as Occitan barrancon "rung of a chair or ladder," almost certainly of secondary origin (cf. Johannes Hubschmid in Vox Romanica, vol. 11 [1950], pp. 265-66).

First Known Use

1648, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of barranca was in 1648

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Cite this Entry

“Barranca.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/barranca. Accessed 10 Mar. 2025.

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