pingo
/ˈpɪŋɡoʊ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.56 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A conical mound of earth with an ice core caused by permafrost uplift, particularly if lasting more than a year.
Example Sentences
- "The greatest variation in cover thickness, as determined from collapsed pingos, is in irregularly shaped pingos, or those with asymmetrically located ice-cores."
- "Considerable progress has been made on the discovery and mapping of many open system pingos in central Alaska and Yukon Territory[…], as well as the discovery of pingo-like mounds in the shallow waters of the Beaufort Sea north of the mouth of the Mackenzie River. The greatest advance in pingo research in the last decade has been a consideration and understanding of theory and rate of pingo growth […]"
- "With the exception of small pingos, most pingo ice cores have several ice types. The bulk of the core can be segregated ice, intrusive ice formed from the freezing of bulk water, or any combination of the two types. In addition, dilation-crack ice (tension-crack ice, Brown and Kupsch, 1974) is commonly the main ice type beneath the summit of pingos with craters."
- "Larger scale frost-heave features, such as pingoes, are rare because there is insufficient water available, generally, for the growth of large ice bodies."
- "This done, he [an elephant] took up the pingo and moved away from the spot; but at the distance of about a fathom or two, laid it down again, and ripping open one of the bundles, took out of it all the contents, somans [footnote: Woman's robe], cambāyas [footnote: The figured cloth worn by men], handkerchiefs, and several pieces of white cambrick cloth, all which he tore to small pieces, and flung them wildly here and there. He did the same with all the other pingoes."
- "The Gańga-vaṇṣa minissu are the washers of the Oliya caste, who are not only a low caste, but come below the Paduvó and Berawáyó, and are the only caste who will carry the pingoes of the smiths."
Etymology
Word Breakdown
- Root: pingu
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpɪŋɡoʊ/
- British English: /ˈpɪŋɡəʊ/