Arctic

How to spell arctic

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce arctic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does arctic mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the far north polar region, or describing extremely cold, freezing conditions.

Arctic in a sentence

• The research vessel spent two months mapping the arctic ice sheet.

• An arctic wind cut through the commuters waiting on the platform.

Where does arctic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word traces back to the ancient Greek arktos, which simply meant 'bear'. From it the Greeks formed arktikos, literally 'of the bear', because the northern sky is dominated by the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear, and by Ursa Minor, which contains the pole star. To sail or travel toward that bear-marked region of the heavens was to head north, so the term came to label the far north of the world. English picked it up in the late fourteenth century through Latin arcticus and Old French artique, and early forms often dropped the first c, spelling it 'artik'. That historical wobble is the very trap that still catches writers today: the spelling keeps a hard arc- (think 'arc') even though many speakers say 'AR-tic' and leave the middle c unheard.

How the word is built

• arct- (from Greek arktos: bear, by way of arktikos: of the northern Bear constellation)
• -ic (adjective suffix)