<jats:p>A psychrotolerant, Gram-stain-positive, yellow-pigmented, aerobic rod, designated SK1<jats:sup>T</jats:sup>, was isolated from a soil sample collected from Store Koldewey, north-east Greenland. Cells were catalase- and methyl red-positive, produced H<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>S and produced acid from glucose, mannitol and salicin. Strain SK1<jats:sup>T</jats:sup> was able to grow between −6 and 28 °C, with an optimum at 20 °C. The isolate contained 2,4-diaminobutyrate, glycine, alanine and glutamic acid in the cell wall and the major menaquinones were MK-10 and MK-11. Identified polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol. The major fatty acids were anteiso-C<jats:sub>15 : 0</jats:sub> (53.5 %), anteiso-C<jats:sub>17 : 0</jats:sub> (17.0 %) and C<jats:sub>18 : 0</jats:sub> (12.1 %). The genomic DNA G+C content was 67.8 mol%. Strain SK1<jats:sup>T</jats:sup> showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with <jats:italic>Cryobacterium psychrotolerans</jats:italic> 0549<jats:sup>T</jats:sup> (97.6 %) and <jats:italic>Cryobacterium roopkundense</jats:italic> RuGl7<jats:sup>T</jats:sup> (96.8 %). Considering morphological, physiological, biochemical and chemotaxonomic characters and phylogenetic analysis, strain SK1<jats:sup>T</jats:sup> represents a novel species in the genus <jats:italic>Cryobacterium</jats:italic>, for which the name <jats:italic>Cryobacterium arcticum</jats:italic> sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SK1<jats:sup>T</jats:sup> ( = DSM 22823<jats:sup>T</jats:sup>  = NCCB 100316<jats:sup>T</jats:sup>).</jats:p>