mountain

English Online Dictionary. What means mountain‎? What does mountain mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English mountayne, mountain, montaigne, from Anglo-Norman muntaine, muntaigne, from Early Medieval Latin montānia, a collective based on Latin montem (“mountain”), from Proto-Indo-European *monti (compare Welsh mynydd (“mountain”), Albanian mat (“bank, shore”), Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬙𐬌 (mati, “promontory”)), from *men- (“to project, stick out”). Displaced native Old English beorg and dūn, and partially displaced non-native Old English munt, from Latin mōns (whence English mount).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmaʊn.tɪn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmaʊn.tən/, [ˈmaʊn.tn̩] [ˈmãʊ̯̃(n)ʔn̩], [ˈmæ̃ʊ̯̃(n)ʔn̩]
• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈmaʊn.tən/
  • (Dublin) IPA^(key): /ˈmæʊn.tən/, /ˈmɛʊn.tən/
• Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -aʊntɪn, (General American) -aʊntən
• US: moun‧tain

Noun

mountain (countable and uncountable, plural mountains)

1. (countable) An elevation of land of considerable dimensions rising more or less abruptly, forming a conspicuous figure in the landscape, usually having a small extent of surface at its summit. [from 12th c.]
2. (countable) Something very large in size or quantity; a huge amount; a great heap. [from 15th c.]
3. (figuratively) A difficult task or challenge.
4. (uncountable, now historical) Wine from Malaga made from grapes that grow on a mountain. [from 18th c.]
5. (countable, slang) A woman's large breast.
6. (cartomancy) The twenty-first Lenormand card.

Usage notes

• As with the names of rivers and lakes, the names of mountains are typically formed by adding the generic word before or after the unique term. In the case of mountains, when the word precedes the unique term, mount is used: Mount Olympus, Mount Everest, Mount Tai; when the word follows the unique term, mountain is used: Crowfoot Mountain, Blue Mountain, Rugged Mountain. Generally speaking, such names will be adjectives or attributive nouns, but many foreign placenames formed with adjectives—as China's Huashan—are translated as though they were proper names: Mount Hua instead of Hua Mountain or Flourishing Mountain. Mountain chains are never named with mount, only with mountains, a translated term, or a pluralized name.

Synonyms

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Holonyms

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Translations

See also

• Category:Mountains

References

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “mountain”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “mountain”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Further reading

• mountain on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Mountain in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• antimuon

Middle English

Noun

mountain

1. Alternative form of mountayne