fortress

English

Etymology

Early 14 c., from Old French forteresce, forteresse, forterece (“strong place, fortification”) [from 12th c.], variant of fortelesse, from Medieval Latin fortalitia, from Latin fortis (“strong”) (see fort) +‎ -itia, added to adjectives to form nouns of quality or condition. French -ess, from Latin -itia is also in words such as duress, largesse and riches. For change of medial -l- to -r- in Old French, compare orne (“elm”) from ulmus; chartre from cartula and chapitre from capitulum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɔɹ.tɹəs/
• IPA^(key): /ˈfɔː.tɹəs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fort‧ress

Noun

fortress (plural fortresses)

1. A fortified place; a large and permanent fortification, sometimes including a town; for example a fort, a castle; a stronghold; a place of defense or security.
2. (chess) A position that, if obtained by the weaker side, will prevent penetration by the opposing side, generally achieving a draw.

Translations

fortified place

• Ainu: チャシ (chashi)
• Albanian: kala (sq) f, fortesë (sq) f
• Arabic: قَلْعَة f (qalʕa), حِصْن (ar) m (ḥiṣn)

  Moroccan Arabic: قلعة f (qalʿa)

• Armenian: ամրոց (hy) (amrocʻ), բերդ (hy) (berd)
• Aromanian: tsitati f, grãditã f
• Azerbaijani: qala (az)
• Belarusian: крэ́пасць f (krépascʹ)
• Bulgarian: кре́пост (bg) f (krépost)
• Catalan: fortalesa (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 要塞 (zh) (yàosài), 城堡 (zh) (chéngbǎo), 堡壘／堡垒 (zh) (bǎolěi), 堡垒 (zh) (bǎolěi)

• Classical Nahuatl: yāōcalli
• Czech: pevnost (cs) f
• Danish: fæstning (da) c
• Dutch: vesting (nl) f, fort (nl) n
• Erzya: кемечикудо (kemečikudo)
• Esperanto: fortreso, fortiko
• Estonian: kindlus
• Finnish: linnoitus (fi)
• French: forteresse (fr) f
• Galician: forte (gl) m, fortaleza (gl) f
• Georgian: ციხესიმაგრე (cixesimagre)
• German: Festung (de) f
• Greek: φρούριο (el) n (froúrio)

  Ancient: φρούριον n (phroúrion), ὀχύρωμα n (okhúrōma)

• Hebrew: מִבְצָר (he) m (mivtsár)
• Hindi: गढी (gaḍhī)
• Hungarian: vár, erőd (hu), erődítmény (hu)
• Icelandic: virki n
• Ido: fortreso (io)
• Irish: dún
• Italian: fortezza (it) f, rocca (it) f
• Japanese: 要塞 (ja) (ようさい, yōsai)
• Kalmyk: шивә (şivä)
• Karakalpak: qorg'an
• Kazakh: бекініс (bekınıs), қамал (qamal)
• Khmer: បន្ទាយ (km) (banteay)
• Korean: 요새 (ko) (yosae) (要塞 (ko))
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: قەڵا (qella)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kyrgyz: сепил (ky) (sepil)
• Latin: castrum n, castellum (la) n, arx (la) f
• Latvian: cietoksnis m
• Lithuanian: tvirtovė f
• Macedonian: твр́дина f (tvŕdina), ка́ле n (kále), кре́пост f (krépost)
• Maranao: ilian
• Mongolian: цайз (mn) (cajz)
• Norman: fortéresse f (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: festning m or f

  Nynorsk: festning f or m

• Old English: fæsten n
• Persian: دژ (fa) (dež), قلعه (fa) (qal'e)
• Polish: forteca (pl) f, twierdza (pl) f, warownia (pl) f
• Portuguese: fortaleza (pt) f
• Quechua: pukara
• Romanian: cetate (ro) f, fortăreață (ro) f
• Russian: кре́пость (ru) f (krépostʹ)
• Sanskrit: पुरा (sa) (purā), दुर्ग (sa) m (durga)
• Scots: fortress
• Scottish Gaelic: dùn m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: твр̀ђава f, у̏тврда f, тврђа f

  Roman: tvr̀đava (sh) f, ȕtvrda (sh) f, tvȑđa (sh) f

• Slovak: pevnosť f, tvrdza m
• Slovene: utrdba (sl) f
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: grod m

• Spanish: fortaleza (es) f
• Swedish: fästning (sv) c
• Tajik: қалъа (qalʾa), диж (tg) (diž)
• Tashelhit: ⵜⴰⴳⴰⴷⵉⵔⵜ f (tagadirt)
• Thai: ป้อมปราการ (bpôm bpraa-gaan)
• Turkish: kale (tr)
• Turkmen: gala
• Ukrainian: форте́ця (uk) f (fortécja), крі́пость f (krípostʹ)
• Uzbek: qalʻa
• Vietnamese: pháo đài (vi)
• Welsh: caer (cy) f
• Yiddish: פֿעסטונג f (festung)

See also

• fortalice, fortilice

Verb

fortress (third-person singular simple present fortresses, present participle fortressing, simple past and past participle fortressed)

1. (transitive) To furnish with a fortress or with fortresses; to guard, to fortify.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto)‎^[1], London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC:

     Honour and Beautie in the owners armes, / Are weaklie fortreſt from a world of harmes.