iceberg

Partial calque of Dutch ijsberg (compound of ijs (“ice”) +‎ berg (“mountain”)), from Middle Dutch ijsberch. First used to describe a glacier as seen at a distance from a ship then used as a term to describe the floating chunks of ice broken off from such glaciers. Cognate to German Eisberg, Danish isbjerg, Norwegian isberg and Swedish isberg. Figurative senses in reference to the fact that only one-tenth of an iceberg is usually visible above water.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈaɪsbɜːɡ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈaɪsbɝɡ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪsbɜː(ɹ)ɡ
• Hyphenation: ice‧berg

iceberg (plural icebergs)

1. (obsolete) The seaward end of a glacier. [18th–19th c.]
2. A huge mass of ocean-floating ice which has broken off a glacier or ice shelf [from 19th c.]

   The Titanic hit an iceberg and sank.

   • 1997, Preston, Diana, Preston, Diana A first rate tragedy Constable, London: 160‎^[1]:

     Clissold the excellent cook, who should have gone with the motor party, tumbled off a small iceberg and concussed himself while posing or 'ponting' as it had come to be known- Griffith Taylor, with his usual wit, had defined 'to pont' as 'to spend a deuce of a time posing in an uncomfortable position'.

   • 2000, Michelle Jerott, A Great Catch, Avon Books, →ISBN:

     The passengers still on board were keen to watch as Tessa's crew scrambled for their positions, and she heard jokes about icebergs and devil's triangles, and anxious childish queries answered by soothing adult tones.

3. (US, slang) An aloof person. [from 19th c.]
4. (figuratively, after an adjective) An impending disastrous event whose adverse effects are only beginning to show.
   • 2013, “How Barack Obama can get at least some of his credibility back”, in The Economist‎^[2]:

     He has little to lose: at present he will go down in history, alongside George W. Bush, as a skipper who ignored the looming fiscal iceberg.

5. (figuratively, slang, chiefly Internet slang) A topic that is more convoluted and fractal than it may seem.

   Near-synonym: rabbit hole

   Do some digging into that politician's past life and associates, and you'll see that the iceberg runs deep.

   There's a massive iceberg of increasingly crazy fanfics out there based around those two characters.

   1. (by extension) A list, infographic, or other enumeration of such a topic and its subcomponents, often ordered into groups sorted by obscurity and bizarreness.

      Check out the gaming iceberg on this post! There's some really freaky titles there that I've never heard of.

      Today we're gonna talk about the Star Wars iceberg.

• → Azerbaijani: aysberq
• → French: iceberg
• → Spanish: iceberg
• → Portuguese: iceberg, icebergue, aicebergue (prescriptive)
• → Turkish: aysberg
• → Welsh: eisbyrg
• → Welsh: mynydd iâ (calque)
• → Welsh: rhewfryn (calque)

• freeboard
• growler
• melt pond

• iceberg on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Category:Icebergs on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “iceberg”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Borrowed from English iceberg, from Dutch ijsberg (literally “ice mountain”).

• IPA^(key): /ajs.bɛʁɡ/, /is.bɛʁɡ/, /ajz.bɛʁɡ/, /iz.bɛʁɡ/, /ajs.bœʁɡ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛʁɡ
• Homophone: icebergs

iceberg m (plural icebergs)

1. iceberg

• partie émergée de l'iceberg
• partie visible de l'iceberg
• sommet de l'iceberg

• “iceberg”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

iceberg m (plural icebergs)

1. iceberg

Unadapted borrowing from English iceberg, from Dutch ijsberg (literally “ice mountain”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈajz.berɡ/, /ˈajzˌbɛrɡ/^[1]
• Rhymes: -ajzberɡ, -ɛrɡ

iceberg m (invariable)

1. iceberg

• punta dell'iceberg (“tip of the iceberg”)

• ghiaccio (“ice”)

• icebergue, aicebergue (prescriptive)

Unadapted borrowing from English iceberg, from Dutch ijsberg (literally “ice mountain”).

iceberg m (plural icebergs)

1. iceberg (huge mass of floating ice)

Unadapted borrowing from English iceberg, from Dutch ijsberg (literally “ice mountain”).

• IPA^(key): /iθeˈbeɾ/ [i.θeˈβ̞eɾ], /iθeˈbeɾɡ/ [i.θeˈβ̞eɾɣ̞] (Spain)
• IPA^(key): /iseˈbeɾ/ [i.seˈβ̞eɾ], /iseˈbeɾɡ/ [i.seˈβ̞eɾɣ̞] (Latin America, Philippines)
  • Rhymes: -eɾ, -eɾɡ
  • Syllabification: i‧ce‧berg
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, also) /ˈaisbeɾɡ/ [ˈai̯z.β̞eɾɣ̞]
  • Rhymes: -aisbeɾɡ

iceberg m (plural icebergs)

1. iceberg (A huge mass of ocean-floating ice)

   Synonym: témpano de hielo

   la punta del iceberg ― the tip of the iceberg

2. (figuratively, Internet slang) an iceberg (A list, infographic, or other enumeration of such a topic and its subcomponents); (by extension) an iceberg video

• “iceberg”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024