What does crevasse mean?
Word: Crevasse
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Crevasse means a deep, wide crack in the ice of a glacier.
How do you spell crevasse?
Syllables: cre - vasse
Tricky part: Do not let crevice, a narrow gap in rock, pull you the wrong way: the ending here is asse.
Watch out for: crevass, crevase, crevasce
Memory tip: A crevasse is bigger than a crevice, and its ending is longer too, with a double s and a final e.
Crevasse in a sentence
Example 1: The film shows a team laying a ladder across a crevasse in Antarctica.
Example 2: Blue light glowed from deep inside the crevasse.
Example 3: Our geography book has a photograph of a crevasse on a Himalayan glacier.
Fun Fact
English borrowed this word from French in the early 1800s. Its smaller cousin, the word for a gap in rock, came from the same Old French source centuries earlier.
Practise the CREST Way
Mingle-Mangle
The sentence contains a jumbled word. Choose the word it hides.
Our guide showed us how a narrow rope bridge crosses the deep sceevrsa in the glacier.
a) crevasse
b) cascade
c) creature
d) terrace
Show answer
a) crevasse. Two s letters and a v sit in the jumble, and just one option contains them.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word crevasse as used in the sentence:
Expedition leaders marked the safest way round a wide crevasse with small orange flags.
a) slope
b) summit
c) fissure
d) ridge
Show answer
c) fissure. A fissure is a long, deep crack; a summit, a ridge and a slope all stand out from the land.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
crevvasse
a) v
b) a
c) e
d) r
Show answer
a) v. The v stands alone between the two vowels.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one word in the list is misspelt. Choose the meaning of the misspelt word.
1. cravasse 2. exhilarate 3. vacuum 4. silhouette
a) a dark outline seen against light
b) to make someone feel very happy
c) a space with no air in it
d) a huge split in a mass of moving ice
Show answer
d) a huge split in a mass of moving ice. Cravasse should have an e straight after the r.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. In which of these places are you most likely to find a crevasse?
a) the Deccan Plateau
b) the Sundarbans delta
c) the sands of the Thar
d) the Greenland ice sheet
Show answer
d) the Greenland ice sheet
2. Which item would be most useful for getting across a crevasse?
a) a pair of sunglasses
b) a wooden rowing boat
c) a long aluminium ladder
d) a small fishing net
Show answer
c) a long aluminium ladder
