An igloo or snowhouse is a type of shelter built out of snow, originally built by the Inuit. Iglu is the Inuit word for a house or home built out of any material, and is not restricted exclusively to snowhouses, but includes traditional tents, sod houses, homes constructed of driftwood and modern buildings. Outside of Inuit society, however, "igloo" refers exclusively to shelters constructed out of blocks of compacted snow, generally in the form of a dome.
