A deep, bowl-shaped valley in a mountain, usually formed by glaciers, or a circus arena.
From French 'cirque,' borrowed from Latin 'circus' meaning 'circle' or 'ring,' ultimately from an Indo-European root related to 'circle.' The geographical meaning developed from the circular shape of glacial valleys.
Glacial cirques look like giant ice cream scoops taken out of mountainsides, and they're one of the clearest signs that a glacier carved the landscape—places like Glacier National Park are full of them! The word came full circle: circus meant 'ring,' then a geographic ring-shaped valley was called a cirque.
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