Obsolete term for a pile or heap; not used in modern Japanese. Replaced by words like 山 (やま) or 積み重ね (つみかさね).
In old documents, it is written as a pile of stones.
accumulation; pile; heap · sedimentation
compost; manure
moraine; terminal moraine
shoal; bank
sandbank; shoal
Standard kanji form for both the geological term and the obsolete sense.
The kanji 堆 originally means 'pile' or 'heap' in Chinese, and the obsolete Japanese sense reflects that. The geological sense is a modern specialized usage.