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icecap

[ ahys-kap ]
/ ˈaɪsˌkæp /
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noun
a thick cover of ice over an area, sloping in all directions from the center.
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Origin of icecap

First recorded in 1850–55; ice + cap1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use icecap in a sentence

  • One may now pick the leaves of temperate climate trees from the rocks beneath a great icecap.

  • This is one of the prime causes of a constantly changing icecap.

    Deathworld|Harry Harrison

British Dictionary definitions for icecap

icecap
/ (ˈaɪsˌkæp) /

noun
a thick mass of glacial ice and snow that permanently covers an area of land, such as either of the polar regions or the peak of a mountain
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for icecap

icecap
[ īs′kăp′ ]

A dome-shaped body of ice and snow that covers a mountain peak or a large area and spreads out under its own weight. Ice caps have an area of less than 50,000 square km (19,500 square mi). Compare ice sheet.
A polar cap.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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