sea stack
/ˈsiː ˌstæk/US/ˈsi ˌstæk/
sea stack noun: a pillar of rock that rises from the ocean, formed by surrounding softer ground eroding away.
Noun
sea stack (plural sea stacks)
- A pillar of rock that rises from the ocean, formed by surrounding softer ground eroding away.
- The sea-gull sprang upwards from where he had floated on the ripple, and hied him slowly away to his lodge in his deep sea-stack; the dusky cormorant flitted past, with heavier and more frequent stroke, to his whitened shelf high on the precipice; [...]1854 May 15, “Notes on Books”, in Norton’s Literary Gazette and Publishers’ Circular, volume I (New Series), number X, New York, N.Y.: Baker, Godwin & Co., […] [for Charles Benjamin Norton], →OCLC...
- That this defile may have been partly eroded by the action of the sea is also very probable; and there are certain isolated pinnacles and irregular columns of agglomerate in its immediate neighbourhood which have all the appearance of being old sea-stacks.1878 March 6, A. C. Ramsay, James Geikie, “On the Geology of Gibraltar”, in W[illiam] S[weetland] Dallas, editor, The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, volume XXXIV, London...
- Synonyms:
- stack
sea stack meaning in Thai and Vietnamese
sea stack in Thai
- pillar of rock that rises from the ocean
- เกาะหินโด่ง gɔ̀-hǐn-dòong
sea stack in Vietnamese
- pillar of rock that rises from the ocean
- khối đá tàn dư
Examples of sea stack in a sentence
- At the foot of the cliffs are narrow boulder beaches and a few sea stacks.1955, George C[layton] Kennedy, Howard H[amilton] Waldron, “Geography”, in Geology of Pavlof Volcano and Vicinity, Alaska (Investigation of...
- Lying off the north-west coast of the island is the Old Man of Hoy, the most famous sea stack in the world.2004, J. Murray Neil, “Hills of Hoy”, in The Scots Fiddle: Tunes, Tales & Traditions of the Western Highlands, Hebrides, Orkney & Shetland...
- Some sea stacks are far off shore, while others like the one on the facing page, are in the tidal zone.2009, Claudia Nice, Down by the Sea with Brush & Pen: Draw and Paint Beautiful Coastal Scenes, Cincinnati, Oh.: North Light Books, →ISBN:
Synonyms of sea stack
Forms of sea stack
| plural | sea stacks |
|---|---|
| alternative form | sea-stack |
Origin of sea stack
From sea + stack (“a heap, pile; large vertical column of rock in the sea”); stack is derived from Middle English stak (“a heap, pile, stack; large vertical column of rock in the sea”) [and other forms], from Old Norse stakkr (“a heap, pile; haystack; barn”) (compare Faroese stakkur (“sea stack”)), from Proto-Germanic *stakkaz (“pile of hay, haystack”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- (“beam, pole, stick”).
Questions about sea stack
- What does sea stack mean?
- Sea stack means a pillar of rock that rises from the ocean, formed by surrounding softer ground eroding away.
- What is sea stack in Thai?
- Sea stack in Thai is เกาะหินโด่ง (gɔ̀-hǐn-dòong). See Sea stack meaning in Thai.
- How do you use sea stack in a sentence?
- At the foot of the cliffs are narrow boulder beaches and a few sea stacks.
- What part of speech is sea stack?
- Sea stack is a noun.
- How do you pronounce sea stack?
- Sea stack is pronounced /ˈsiː ˌstæk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of sea stack?
- The plural of sea stack is sea stacks.
Words near sea stack in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sea stack (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-sea stack.wav.
Cite this entry: “sea stack.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sea_stack. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.