as in pile
a small quantity of stones heaped together that usually marks a place
A cairn of loose stones marked the site.
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Recent Examples of cairn
Inside every cairn, the team unearthed countless human and animal bones, often fragmented.
—
Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 28 Mar. 2025
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
Ranger died in 1940 and was buried at the summit of Mount Hood, which is marked by a stone cairn and an engraved plaque.
—Meira Gebel, Axios, 20 Sep. 2024
The trail can be confusing so keep an eye open for cairns and tree notches serving as trail markers.
—Roger Naylor, The Arizona Republic, 18 Sep. 2024
See All Example Sentences for cairn
Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 28 Mar. 2025
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
Ranger died in 1940 and was buried at the summit of Mount Hood, which is marked by a stone cairn and an engraved plaque.
—Meira Gebel, Axios, 20 Sep. 2024
The trail can be confusing so keep an eye open for cairns and tree notches serving as trail markers.
—Roger Naylor, The Arizona Republic, 18 Sep. 2024
See All Example Sentences for cairn
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cairn
Noun
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Clean up piles of footwear scattered across the floor and stay organized with a shoe storage cabinet.—
Ali Faccenda,
People.com,
2 July 2025
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The Wall Street Journal wrote about how the robots are getting flipped over, stuck in snow piles and some students have been found to sit on them, or trip over them, when drinking.—
Phillip Molnar,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
6 July 2025
Noun
-
Still, Montgomery left Hendricks on the mound, and Smith hit a hard ground ball through the middle, driving in a run.—
Jeff Fletcher,
Oc Register,
10 July 2025
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Things get even tighter when a left-hander is on the mound.—
Mac Cerullo,
Boston Herald,
10 July 2025
Noun
-
Prioritizing Interoperability Within Your Organization When purchasing new software for your tech stack, interoperability is an important consideration.—
Cynthia Tee,
Forbes.com,
11 July 2025
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The center stack is nearly devoid of physical controls with just a rotary shifter and volume dial.—
Mark Phelan,
Freep.com,
9 July 2025
Noun
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For the second time in a week, someone has died visiting a waterfall in the North Carolina mountains, searchers say.—
Mark Price
Updated July 14,
Charlotte Observer,
14 July 2025
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Luckily, their families found the beautiful small town in the mountains, Redwood Hollows.—
Pam Kragen,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
13 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Cairn.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cairn. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.
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