karst

See also Karst

English

WOTD – 18 January 2010    

Wikipedia

Etymology

From the Karst, a region of modern-day Slovenia typified by such landscape; from German Karst, from Slovene Kras.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: käst, IPA: /kɑːst/, X-SAMPA: /kA:st/
• (US) enPR: kärst, IPA: /kɑɹst/, X-SAMPA: /kAr\st/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(r)st

  Homophones: cast, caste (in non-rhotic accents)

Noun

karst (plural karsts)

1. (geology) A type of land formation, usually with many caves formed through the dissolving of limestone by underground drainage.
   • 1978, M. M. Sweeting, “The Karst of Kweilin, Southern China,” The Geographical Journal, vol. 144, no. 2, p. 200:

     In the time available to us on our geomorphological tour we were not able to see the higher and younger karsts of Kweichow and Yunnan and Kunming.

   • 2009, Katherine Harmon, “Top 10 New Species Discovered in 2008,” ScientificAmerican.com, May 29, 2009:

     The shells are just 0.04 inch (one millimeter) long and were found on a karst formation where conditions are damp, but the snails that inhabit them have yet to be observed.

Derived terms

• karstology
• thermokarst

Translations

type of land formation

• Armenian: կարստ (hy) (karst) 
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 喀斯特 (cmn) (kāsītè), 岩溶 (cmn) (yánróng)

• Czech: kras (cs) m
• Dutch: karst (nl)
• Esperanto: karsto (eo)
• Finnish: karsti (fi)
• French: karst (fr) m
• German: Karst (de) m
• Hungarian: karszt (hu)
• Icelandic: karst (is) n

• Japanese: カルスト (ja) (karusuto)
• Macedonian: карст (mk) (karst) m
• Norwegian: karstlandskap (no) n
• Russian: карст (ru) (karst) m 
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: кр̏ш (sh) m, кра̏с (sh) m, ка̏рст (sh) m

  Roman: kȑš (sh) m, krȁs (sh) m, kȁrst (sh) m

• Slovene: krás (sl) m
• Spanish: karst (es) m, malpaís (es) m

Anagrams

• karts
• stark

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French

Wikipedia ^fr

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kaʁst/

Noun

karst m (plural karsts)

1. (geology) karst

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Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kʰar̥st/
• Rhymes: -ar̥st

Noun

karst n

1. (geology) karst

Declension

declension of karst

n-s	singular
	indefinite	definite
nominative	karst	karstið
accusative	karst	karstið
dative	karsti	karstinu
genitive	karsts	karstsins

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Spanish

Alternative forms

• carst

Noun

karst m (plural karstes)

1. (geology) karst

Synonyms

• malpaís