An Igloo, also spelled Iglu, or a snow house is a kind of shelter built out of snow. It is also called "aputiak" and is a temporary winter home or a hunting underground dwelling used by the Canadian and Greenland Inuit (Eskimos). The word Igloo comes from the Eskimo "Igdlu" which means house or home. It is also related to a town named Iglulik and Inuit people known as Iglulirmiut both belonging to the Iglulirmuit island. For an Inuit, Igloo is not restricted to only homes made out of snow, but can also be a cloth tent, sod houses, houses constructed of driftwood and even modern buildings. Inuits who live between the Mackenzie river delta and the Labrador live in snow houses in winter and in sealskin or cloth tents in summer. But for general purposes, an igloo is a shelter built out of blocks of snow and is dome shaped.

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