What does escarpment mean?
Word: Escarpment
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Escarpment means a long, steep slope or wall of rock at the edge of a high, flat area of land.
Synonyms: scarp
How do you spell escarpment?
Syllables: es - carp - ment
Tricky part: It begins with es, not ex: students who know words like excite often write excarpment.
Watch out for: excarpment, escarpement, eskarpment
Memory tip: Escape up the escarpment: both words begin with esc, never exc.
Escarpment in a sentence
Example 1: The Western Ghats form a long escarpment along the edge of the Deccan Plateau.
Example 2: Goats picked their way along a narrow path on the escarpment.
Example 3: From the train window we saw a red sandstone escarpment glowing at sunset.
Fun Fact
Africa's Great Rift Valley is lined in many places by tall escarpments, some of them hundreds of metres high.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
The bus crawled slowly up the steep escarpmant, and from the top we looked down at the green plains, the winding river and the tiny villages far below.
a) crawled
b) winding
c) villages
d) escarpmant
Show answer
d) escarpmant. The ending is ment, the same as in movement and payment.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word escarpment as used in the sentence:
Eagles nested high on the rocky escarpment above the lake.
a) delta
b) meadow
c) cliff
d) plain
Show answer
c) cliff. An escarpment is a steep rock face, much like a cliff.
Spell-o-Spell
Three words in the list are spelt correctly. Choose what the misspelt one means.
1. escarpment 2. plateau 3. torrant 4. glacier
a) a fast, strong rush of water
b) a long, steep slope at the edge of high land
c) a slow-moving mass of ice
d) a large area of high, flat land
Show answer
a) a fast, strong rush of water. Torrent ends in ent, the slip is in its last syllable; escarpment, plateau and glacier are fine as written.
Mingle-Mangle
The jumbled letters in the sentence hide a word. Choose it.
A thin waterfall poured over the edge of the rpcameestn after the first rain.
a) escarpment
b) experiment
c) encampment
d) excitement
Show answer
a) escarpment. The jumble has an s and an r, which encampment and excitement lack, and no x, which experiment needs.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Hikers who reach the foot of an escarpment will next have to ____.
a) wade across a lake
b) climb steeply upwards
c) go down into a cave
d) walk on level sand
Show answer
b) climb steeply upwards
2. Escarpment came into English from ____.
a) Arabic
b) Hindi
c) Greek
d) French
Show answer
d) French
