Mountain
nounA very large natural elevation of the earth's surface, rising steeply and far higher than a hill.
How to spell mountain
8 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce mountain
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does mountain mean?
- nounA very large natural elevation of the earth's surface, rising steeply and far higher than a hill.
Mountain in a sentence
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The climbers reached the summit of the mountain before noon.
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Snow covered the mountain from October until late spring.
Where does mountain come from?
Language of origin: Latin
The word comes ultimately from the Latin noun mons, with its stem mont-, meaning a mountain or large hill. In the everyday Latin that gave rise to the Romance languages this developed into an adjective montanus, 'of the mountains', and then a feminine form montanea meaning 'mountainous country'. Old French reshaped this into montaigne, and English borrowed it during the 1200s, gradually settling on the modern spelling 'mountain'. The same Latin root still shows itself in close relatives such as 'mount', 'mountainous', and place names ending in -mont. The spelling trap lies in that unstressed second syllable: the ending sounds like a vague '-tin' or '-tn', so writers must remember it is actually written -tain, echoing its French ancestor montaigne.
How the word is built
- mount- (from Latin mons, montis: a mountain or large hill)
- -ain (noun suffix from Old French -aigne)
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