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bulwark.

A defensive wall or rampart.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbʊl.wək/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbʊl.wɚk/US/ˈbʉl.wəɹk/Northern-Ireland, Scotland
  1. A defensive wall or rampart.

  2. A defense or safeguard.

  3. A breakwater.

  4. The planking or plating along the sides of a nautical vessel above her gunwale that reduces the likelihood of seas washing over the gunwales and people being washed overboard.

  5. Any means of defence or security.

    figuratively
    The party stalwarts constitute the bulwark that ensures the president's term of office.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English bulwerk, from Middle Dutch bolwerk, bolwerc and Middle Low German bolwerk, equivalent to bole (“tree trunk”) + work. Cognate with German Bollwerk, Danish bolværk, Swedish bålverk, Dutch bolwerk. Doublet of boulevard (from French boulevard, from Dutch); cognate with Portuguese and Spanish baluarte and Italian baluardo.

verb/ˈbʊl.wək/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbʊl.wɚk/US/ˈbʉl.wəɹk/Northern-Ireland, Scotland
  1. To fortify something with a wall or rampart.

    transitive
  2. To provide protection of defense for something.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English bulwerk, from Middle Dutch bolwerk, bolwerc and Middle Low German bolwerk, equivalent to bole (“tree trunk”) + work. Cognate with German Bollwerk, Danish bolværk, Swedish bålverk, Dutch bolwerk. Doublet of boulevard (from French boulevard, from Dutch); cognate with Portuguese and Spanish baluarte and Italian baluardo.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.