What's the difference between fortress and stronghold?

Fortress


Definition:

  • (n.) A fortified place; a large and permanent fortification, sometimes including a town; a fort; a castle; a stronghold; a place of defense or security.
  • (v. t.) To furnish with a fortress or with fortresses; to guard; to fortify.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The nuptials drew crowds of fans eager to witness the glitzy event, but they were kept far away from the heavily walled 16th-century fortress, which offers stunning views of Florence and surrounding Tuscan hills.
  • (2) In one way they were right to state the obvious – because Celtic were utter plod at the back – but hubris is best not displayed until you are beyond the reach of vengeance, as opposed to being about to walk into the fortress of the foe you have just mocked.
  • (3) Captain America kicking open the door of what looks like a European mountain fortress suggests the Nazi offshoot Hydra might be rearing its many ugly heads once again.
  • (4) After a stirring speech urging the ushering in of a new era of politics delivered to a packed convention hall in the Ghanaian capital Accra, Obama and his family toured the white-walled slave fortress to the sound of beating drums and chanting from a huge crowd outside.
  • (5) The fortress-like villages perched on rocky mountaintops we saw when we visited the north of the country are reminders that Yemen has constantly been invaded, or otherwise meddled with, by outsiders, from the Turks onwards.
  • (6) "Now we know our fortresses are secure," says their president, Tim Farron, a smirk of triumph in his voice, "we can collect 25 or 30 more Tory seats."
  • (7) Arab Iraq may still try to retake the province, but it is too focused on turning Baghdad and the Shia south into a fortress.
  • (8) However, much as MI6 hides in plain sight in their huge postmodernist fortress on the south bank of the Thames, at least one BAE building is very visible indeed.
  • (9) The original fortress was built in the 13th century but was raised to the ground by clashing clans and today is largely a 20th-century Grand Designs-style restoration thanks to Lieutenant Colonel John MacRae-Gilstrap, who bought the ruin in 1911.
  • (10) Founded in 1088, the monastery’s fortress-like walls dominate the island’s skyline.
  • (11) So when Bill Gates pitched into the debate last week with a proposal that robots should be taxed , just like human workers are, you can imagine the splutters of outrage from the neoliberal fortresses of Silicon Valley.
  • (12) It's like a giant fortress in the middle of the city, taking up more than a traditional housing block (a whole street was annihilated for it).
  • (13) Canada has budgeted more than C$1bn (£644m) for security for the two summits, leading to accusations from activists that Toronto had been turned into a fortress.
  • (14) I further call on the international community to do everything in its power to protect the affected civilian population and safeguard the unique cultural heritage of Palmyra.” However, Isis has often cherished its destruction of cultural artefacts, releasing long, well-produced videos of their destruction of objects in the Mosul Museum and their detonation and bulldozing of much of the ancient fortress city of Hatra in Iraq.
  • (15) So the Super Fortresses were stripped to fly at 32,000 feet.
  • (16) The bank has repeatedly made it clear that a big loss – even of $6.2bn – cannot take down a bank with the size and strength of JP Morgan – a bank that has, in its own favorite phrase, "a fortress balance sheet".
  • (17) A sensationalist and scruple-free press seems eager to collude in their “noble lie”: that a Middle Eastern militia, thriving on the utter ineptitude of its local adversaries, poses an “existential risk” to an island fortress that saw off Napoleon and Hitler .
  • (18) In an interview with Fox News last Sunday , Trump accused Beijing of “building a massive fortress in the middle of the South China Sea, which they shouldn’t be doing”.
  • (19) Some 35% of Labour supporters voted yes on 18 September and three of the party’s traditional fortresses – Glasgow, North Lanarkshire and Dundee – were among the four local authorities out of 32 to back independence.
  • (20) Dun Totaig Distance 4 miles Start Letterfearn, Grid Ref: NG884238 Further information and maps Eilean Donan castle ( eileandonancastle.com )is one of the Highlands', indeed Scotland's, most iconic landmarks – a picture-perfect stone fortress surrounded by water (and often thronging with visitors).

Stronghold


Definition:

  • (n.) A fastness; a fort or fortress; fortfield place; a place of security.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But late last month, Amisom pushed them out of Afgoye, a strategic stronghold 30km from Mogadishu, where Amisom officials say the militants used to manufacture explosives used in attacks on the capital.
  • (2) Security forces have also tried to wrest back the Sunni stronghold of Tikrit from a loose alliance of Isis fighters, other jihadist groups and former Saddam Hussein loyalists.
  • (3) But it still seemed unlikely, despite the angry and determined mood, that the kingdom would risk ground operations, informed sources said – not least because the main strongholds of Isis are far away in northeastern Syria and across the border in Iraq.
  • (4) Photograph: Reuters Isis controls large swaths of north-east Syria including its stronghold of Raqqa and a number of lucrative gas and oil fields in the east.
  • (5) The first state to outlaw alcohol entirely was, not surprisingly, a Protestant stronghold, the New England state of Maine, which introduced Prohibition in 1851.
  • (6) Major Richard Streatfeild, 40, who the Ministry of Defence used as a "poster boy" for the war, was a commanding officer in the insurgent stronghold of Sangin during some of the fiercest fighting.
  • (7) Ever, ever ever.” Mahoning, the eastern Ohio county where Miller was coordinating Trump’s campaign, is a historically Democratic stronghold that includes Youngstown, a former steel city that has experienced decades of economic decline.
  • (8) One of the two last strongholds of Gaddafi loyalists, the town of Bani Walid, has finally been contained, Libya's interim government has claimed, leaving only parts of the ousted tyrant's birthplace out of rebel reach.
  • (9) However, the military remains unable to shift Isis from its strongholds or reverse the gains the group made during a stunning sweep through Mosul and Tikrit that continues to pose a grave threat to Iraq's borders.
  • (10) Civilian buildings, including a mosque, reportedly came under fire from tanks and artillery in Misrata, the last rebel stronghold in the west of the country.
  • (11) Meanwhile, on the doorsteps of the Margate district of Cliftonville, one of Kent’s most deprived areas and historically a Labour stronghold, Scobie, the party’s 25-year-old candidate, was working hard last to consolidate core support in what he characterised a three way marginal where he could emerge as the “anti-Ukip” choice.
  • (12) The 550 soldiers began handing over control of the palace, the last British stronghold in downtown Basra, to the Iraqi army shortly before 1am local time (2200 BST yesterday), the army said.
  • (13) A quick conversation was had about the potential for him to be drawing us into that stronghold and then detonating [a bomb] or killing the hostages or police as they entered.” The cafe manager, Tori Johnson, was executed by Monis 10 minutes later, prompting police to storm the cafe.
  • (14) Wednesday’s atrocities will be set against the backdrop of the anticipated collapse of Isis’s self-declared caliphate, as Iranian-backed Iraqi and Syrian army forces, plus US and British-backed Kurdish militias, close in on its Mosul and Raqqa strongholds.
  • (15) They mark the furthest point of Isis influence from the group’s stronghold in eastern Syria.
  • (16) A group of 30 pro-Russian gunmen seized a police station in the eastern city of Konstantinovka, 30 miles south of the rebel stronghold of Slavyansk.
  • (17) Hedegaard said: "This is important for our renewables industry, which is a stronghold in Europe, creating jobs and economic growth."
  • (18) Democrats also won the battle for lieutenant governor and were within a whisker of securing the post of attorney general – an unprecedented sweep in a state that until recently was a Republican stronghold.
  • (19) Stockholm, a Social Democrat stronghold, may for the first time see the Greens emerge as the strongest party.
  • (20) With the SNP already threatening Labour in at least 20 of its traditional strongholds in Scotland, the Green surge means Labour is facing a second, largely unexpected, challenge from the left, which has made the election result even more difficult to call.