karst

See also: Karst

English

WOTD – 18 January 2010

Etymology

Borrowed from German Karst. The German term and the (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Slovene placename Kras (the Karst Plateau) have a common origin in Italo-Dalmatian Romance carsus (cf. Italian carso); the metathesis in the Slovene term precludes German borrowing from Slovene.

Pronunciation

• enPR: käst, IPA^(key): /kɑːst/
• enPR: kärst, IPA^(key): /kɑɹst/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• 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
• glaciokarst
• paleokarst

Translations

type of land formation

• Aragonese: karst
• Armenian: կարստ (hy) (karst)
• Azerbaijani: karst
• Belarusian: карст (karst)
• Bulgarian: карст (karst)
• Catalan: carst m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 巖溶／岩溶 (ngām⁴yung⁴)

  Mandarin: 岩溶 (zh) (yánróng), 喀斯特 (zh) (kāsite)

• Czech: kras (cs) m
• Dutch: karst (nl) m
• Esperanto: karsto
• Finnish: karsti (fi)
• French: karst (fr) m
• German: Karst (de) m
• Hungarian: karszt
• Icelandic: karst n
• Italian: carso (it) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Irish: carst m, boireann f
• Japanese: カルスト (karusuto)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: карст m (karst)
• Norwegian: karstlandskap n
• Portuguese: carso m, carste m
• Russian: карст (ru) m (karst)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: кр̏ш m, кра̏с m, ка̏рст m

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

• Slovene: krás (sl) m
• Spanish: karst m, malpaís m
• Tagalog: karst
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: carst m

Further reading

• karst on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Stark, Trask, karts, skart, stark

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from German Karst.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɑrst/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: karst
• Rhymes: -ɑrst

Noun

karst m (plural karsten)

1. (geology) karst (terrain with caves formed by limestone dissolution by underground drainage)

Derived terms

• karstbron

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaʁst/

Noun

karst m (plural karsts)

1. (geology) karst

Further reading

• “karst”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʰar̥st/
• Rhymes: -ar̥st

Noun

karst n (genitive singular karsts, no plural)

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