Word.ws English Dictionary

geoglyph

Syllables: ge·o·glyph/ˈd͡ʒiːə(ʊ)ɡlɪf//ˈd͡ʒiːəɡlɪf/

geoglyph noun: a large-scale drawing or image made on the ground by arranging lines of stones, scratching the earth, etc., and often only fully visible from a distance or the air.

Noun

geoglyph (plural geoglyphs)

  1. A large-scale drawing or image made on the ground by arranging lines of stones, scratching the earth, etc., and often only fully visible from a distance or the air.
    • These, and almost 100 others stretched along the Colorado River in the California and Arizona deserts, are called geoglyphs or earth carvings by scientists. [...] Although their exact purpose and meaning are still a mystery, we do know these large and delicate geoglyphs are easily damaged by...1982, “6,000 Years Ago: Blythe, California: Giants of the Desert”, in Your Fragile Legacy: Cultural and Fossil Resources on the Public Lands, [Washington, D.C.]: Bureau of Land Management, United...
    • Geoglyphs usually are found on fans sparse of rock, but what seems the oldest of the scraped designs are on cobbled terraces at Denning Springs, Ocotillo, Death Valley, and above the Mojave River.1987, Ken Hedges, editor, Rock Art Papers (San Diego Museum Papers; number 23), volume 5, San Diego, Calif.: San Diego Museum of Man, →ISBN, page 38

Examples of geoglyph in a sentence

  • Two of the prehistoric sites, a quarry and a special task area, are common in the region, but the other site, a geoglyph, is rare and unique.1989 May, “Affected Environment”, in Proposed 1988 Plan Amendments to the California Desert Conservation Area Plan of 1980: Environmental...
  • Another important form of artistic expression during the ERD period, particularly on the south coast of Peru, was gigantic geoglyphs or man-made desert markings.1999, Izumi Shimada, “The Evolution of Andean Diversity: Regional Formations (500 b.c.e.–c.e. 600)”, in Frank Salomon, Stuart B. Schwartz...
  • What a wonderful adventure, the making of a geoglyph.2003, Andrew Rogers, “The Making of a Geoglyph”, in Ken Scarlett, Rhythms of Life: The Art of Andrew Rogers, South Yarra, Vic.: Macmillan...
  • Hence, some prefer to speak of them as ‘geoglyphs’.2005, Christopher Partridge, “The Sacralization of the Extraterrestrial”, in The Re-enchantment of the West, volumes II (Alternative...

Forms of geoglyph

pluralgeoglyphs

Origin of geoglyph

From geo- (“the Earth; geography”) + glyph (“figure carved in relief or incised”), modelled after petroglyph.

Words formed from geoglyph

Questions about geoglyph

What does geoglyph mean?
Geoglyph means a large-scale drawing or image made on the ground by arranging lines of stones, scratching the earth, etc., and often only fully visible from a distance or the air.
How do you use geoglyph in a sentence?
Two of the prehistoric sites, a quarry and a special task area, are common in the region, but the other site, a geoglyph, is rare and unique.
What part of speech is geoglyph?
Geoglyph is a noun.
How do you pronounce geoglyph?
Geoglyph is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒiːə(ʊ)ɡlɪf/ (UK).
What is the plural of geoglyph?
The plural of geoglyph is geoglyphs.

Words near geoglyph in the dictionary

  1. geogenous
  2. geogeny
  3. Geoghegan
  4. Geoghegans
  5. geoglossaceous
  6. geoglyph
  7. geoglyphic
  8. geoglyphs
  9. geognosis
  10. geognosist
  11. geognosists

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: geoglyph (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)-I learned some phrases-geoglyph.wav, en-us-geoglyph.mp3.

Cite this entry: “geoglyph.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/geoglyph. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.