''cairn'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''cairn'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260125204041-00-⌔

cairn - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Noun

cairn (plural cairns)

• A rounded or conical heap of stones erected by early inhabitants of the British Isles, apparently as a sepulchral monument.
  • ✤ Synonym: See burial mound § Synonyms
  • ✤ “Now here let us place the gray stone of her cairn:/Why speak ye no word!”—said Glenara the stern.¹
• A pile of stones heaped up as a landmark, to guide travelers on land or at sea, or to arrest attention, as in surveying, or in leaving traces of an exploring party, etc.
  • ✤ Hypernym: marker
  • ✤ After fifteen minutes of this we were glad to reach a high saddle on which former travellers had piled little cairns of commemoration and thankfulness.²
• A cairn terrier.

Etymology

From Scots cairn, from Scottish Gaelic càrn, from Old Irish carn, from Proto-Celtic ﹡karnos, from Proto-Indo-European ﹡ḱerh₂- (“horn”).

Compare Welsh carn, Cornish carn. Doublet of carn and horn.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /kɛən/
• (General American) IPA: /kɛ(ə)ɹn/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
• (Australian) IPA: /keːn/
• (New Zealand, without the cheer–chair merger) IPA: /keən/
• (New Zealand, cheer–chair merger) IPA: /kiən/
• (Scotland) IPA: /keɹn/
• (Lancashire, fair–fur merger) IPA: /kɜː(ɹ)n/
• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)n

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

1. 1826, Thomas Campbell, “Glenara”, in The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell, page 105: ↩

2. 1926, T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, New York: Anchor, published 1991, page 180: ↩

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