DUNE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dune mean? 

• DUNE (noun)
  The noun DUNE has 1 sense:

1. a ridge of sand created by the wind; found in deserts or near lakes and oceans

  Familiarity information: DUNE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DUNE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A ridge of sand created by the wind; found in deserts or near lakes and oceans

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

dune; sand dune

Hypernyms ("dune" is a kind of...):

ridge (a long narrow natural elevation or striation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dune"):

seif dune (a long and tall sand dune with a sharp crest; common in the Sahara)

 Context examples 

The first map showing the global geology of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has been completed and fully reveals a dynamic world of dunes, lakes, plains, craters and other terrains.

(The First Global Geologic Map of Titan Completed, NASA)

From dust to dust—or dune to plankton.

(Sleeping sands of the Kalahari awaken after more than 10,000 years, NSF)

Since they were located right over the dune fields around Titan's equator, the only remaining explanation was that the spots were actually clouds of dust raised from the dunes.

(Dust Storms on Titan Spotted for the First Time, NASA)

Even though they are inanimate objects, sand dunes can ‘communicate’ with each other, researchers have found.

(Sand dunes can ‘communicate’ with each other, University of Cambridge)

Researchers say the electrification of Titan’s sands could explain why dunes on the moon, some of which are more than 90 meters tall, form in the opposite direction of the prevailing winds.

('Electric Sands' Cover Titan, VOA News)

Each flow ends on a slope that matches the dynamic "angle of repose" seen in the slumping dry sand of dunes on Mars and Earth.

(Recurring Martian Streaks: Flowing Sand, Not Water?, NASA)

It has been linked to active processes on Mars such as carbon dioxide gas geysers and lines on sand dunes plowed by blocks of dry ice.

(NASA spacecraft observes further evidence of dry ice gullies on Mars, NASA)

This sandstone outcrop — part of a geological layer that Curiosity's science team calls the Stimson unit — has a structure called crossbedding on a large scale that the team has interpreted as deposits of sand dunes formed by wind.

(Mars Panorama from Curiosity Shows Petrified Sand Dunes, NASA)

Then, too, she loved nature, and with generous imagination he changed the scene of their reading—sometimes they read in closed-in valleys with precipitous walls, or in high mountain meadows, and, again, down by the gray sand-dunes with a wreath of billows at their feet, or afar on some volcanic tropic isle where waterfalls descended and became mist, reaching the sea in vapor veils that swayed and shivered to every vagrant wisp of wind.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Dust grains from the red dunes may be carried on the wind from Africa as far as the Southern Ocean.

(Sleeping sands of the Kalahari awaken after more than 10,000 years, NSF)