A palisade is a tall fence made of wooden stakes or poles driven into the ground, standing close together like soldiers in a line. The tops of these stakes are often sharpened to points, making them difficult to climb over.

Throughout history, people built palisades to protect their settlements, forts, and camps from attackers. Native American villages often had palisades surrounding them. Early American colonists built palisade walls around their settlements for protection. Picture a wall of thick logs, each one as tall as a two-story building, planted so tightly together that you couldn't squeeze between them.

Think of how different a palisade is from a modern chain-link fence: a palisade was meant for serious defense. Someone trying to get through had to chop down heavy logs or find another way around entirely.

You might also see the word used to describe tall cliffs that look like walls of vertical rock columns, such as the Palisades along New York's Hudson River. These natural rock formations reminded early settlers of defensive wooden walls, so the name stuck. When you see rows of tall, straight barriers standing side by side, whether made by humans or by nature, you're looking at something palisade-like.