berm
/bɜː(ɹ)m/
berm noun: a narrow ledge or shelf, as along the top or bottom of a slope.
Noun
berm (plural berms)
- A narrow ledge or shelf, as along the top or bottom of a slope.
- A raised bank or path, especially the bank of a canal opposite the towpath.
- The big canals in Europe, in Holland, have a great big berm on the side of the canal several feet wide, which they leave there on purpose to plant reeds in, so as to get a reedy vegetation to protect their slope. Then, beyond that, there is an earthen slope that is grassed and sodded.1910 February 23, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, Protection of Watersheds of Navigable Streams, page 139
- Synonyms:
- heelpath
- One of the flat terraces on the slope of an open-pit mine.
- Synonyms:
- bench, bench floor
- A terrace or shelf of sand along a beach, formed above the high tide water level by wave action.
- On some beaches, the berm grows higher in summer and flattens out in the rougher winter seas.
- A long mound or bank of earth, used especially as a barrier or to provide insulation.
- A berm separates the Moroccan-controlled and Polisario-controlled parts of Western Sahara.
- A small wall along the edge of a bench of an open-pit mine, intended to prevent items falling over the crest.
- Synonyms:
- windrow
- A ledge between the parapet and the moat in a fortification.
- A strip of land between a street and sidewalk.
- The sun soaked our street in hot yellow, and the berms were gasping for water.2003, Emma Espiner, There’s a Cure for This: A Memoir, Penguin, page 15
- Synonyms:
- besidewalk, boulevard, boulevard strip, city easement, common, county strip, curb lawn, curb strip, devil strip/devil's strip/devilstrip, drivestrip/drive strip
- The edge of a road.
Verb
berm (third-person singular simple present berms, present participle berming, simple past and past participle bermed)
- To provide something with a berm
berm meaning in Tamil
berm in Tamil
- கன்னம், கரைப்படுவு, கரைவிளிம்பு, சாலைவிளிம்பு, திண்டுக்கரை, கிடைக்கரை
Examples of berm in a sentence
- The Cape Cod berm is more popular and has a slope from the street up.
- I waited patiently for her to stop hugging the berm to keep distance from fast moving traffic.
- The next series of high tides or large waves will tend to rebuild the berm and redam the stream.
Synonyms of berm
- heelpath
- bench
- bench floor
- windrow
- besidewalk
- boulevard
- boulevard strip
- city easement
- common
- county strip
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- curb lawn
- curb strip
- devil strip/devil's strip/devilstrip
- drivestrip/drive strip
- easement
- extension lawn
- furniture zone
- grass bay
- grassplot
- hellstrip
- island strip
- landscape zone
- long acre
- median
- mow strip
- nature strip
- neutral ground
- parking
- parking strip
- parkrow
- parkstrip/park strip
- parkway
- parkway strip
- planter zone
- planting strip
- right-of-way
- road allowance
- road verge
- roadside
- shoulder
Forms of berm
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | berms |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | berms |
| present participle | berming |
| past participle | bermed |
| past | bermed |
Origin of berm
From Dutch berm (“strip of roadside grass, verge”), probably via French berme, from Middle Dutch barm, baerm, barem (“verge, bank”), from Old Dutch *barm, from Proto-West Germanic *barm, from Proto-Germanic *barmaz (“edge, border, seam”).
Words formed from berm
Words that rhyme with berm
9 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about berm
- What does berm mean?
- Berm means a narrow ledge or shelf, as along the top or bottom of a slope.
- What is berm in Tamil?
- Berm in Tamil is கன்னம், கரைப்படுவு, கரைவிளிம்பு. See Berm meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is berm?
- Berm can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce berm?
- Berm is pronounced /bɜː(ɹ)m/.
- What is the plural of berm?
- The plural of berm is berms.
Words near berm in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: berm (page history and authors); berm (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-berm.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-berm.wav.
Cite this entry: “berm.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/berm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.