MAMMOTH

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does mammoth mean? 

• MAMMOTH (noun)
  The noun MAMMOTH has 1 sense:

1. any of numerous extinct elephants widely distributed in the Pleistocene; extremely large with hairy coats and long upcurved tusks

  Familiarity information: MAMMOTH used as a noun is very rare.

• MAMMOTH (adjective)
  The adjective MAMMOTH has 1 sense:

1. so exceedingly large or extensive as to suggest a giant or mammoth

  Familiarity information: MAMMOTH used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MAMMOTH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of numerous extinct elephants widely distributed in the Pleistocene; extremely large with hairy coats and long upcurved tusks

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("mammoth" is a kind of...):

elephant (five-toed pachyderm)

Meronyms (parts of "mammoth"):

proboscis; trunk (a long flexible snout as of an elephant)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "mammoth"):

Mammuthus primigenius; northern mammoth; woolly mammoth (very hairy mammoth common in colder portions of the northern hemisphere)

columbian mammoth; Mammuthus columbi (a variety of mammoth)

Archidiskidon imperator; imperial elephant; imperial mammoth (largest known mammoth; of America)

Holonyms ("mammoth" is a member of...):

genus Mammuthus; Mammuthus (extinct genus: mammoths)

Derivation:

mammoth (so exceedingly large or extensive as to suggest a giant or mammoth)

• MAMMOTH (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

So exceedingly large or extensive as to suggest a giant or mammoth

Synonyms:

gigantic; mammoth

Context example:

a mammoth multinational corporation

Similar:

big; large (above average in size or number or quantity or magnitude or extent)

Derivation:

mammoth (any of numerous extinct elephants widely distributed in the Pleistocene; extremely large with hairy coats and long upcurved tusks)

 Context examples 

“We found an excess of what looked like bad mutations in the mammoth from Wrangel Island,” Rogers said.

(Genetic ‘Mutational Meltdown’ Doomed Woolly Mammoths, VOA)

You don't mean to say you really believe this stuff of his about mammoths and mastodons and great sea sairpents?

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

However, precisely controlling the behaviour of quantum particles is a mammoth task.

(Quantum state of single electrons controlled by ‘surfing’ on sound waves, University of Cambridge)

The discovery shows the Ancient North Siberians endured extreme conditions in the region 31,000 years ago and survived by hunting woolly mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, and bison.

(DNA from 31,000-year-old milk teeth leads to discovery of new group of ancient Siberians, University of Cambridge)

It argues that some Ice Age megafauna—which in North America include the woolly mammoth, saber-toothed cat and giant sloth—used ancient Tibet as a training ground for developing adaptations that allowed them to cope with a harsh climate.

("Out of Tibet" hypothesis: Cradle of evolution for cold-adapted mammals is in Tibet, NSF)

It is likely that this frenzy eventually will slow to a stop, and that over the next 10 billion years other smaller galaxies may merge with Sparky, causing it to expand and become a mammoth, sedate elliptical galaxy.

(Telescopes Uncover Early Construction of Giant Galaxy, NASA)

Early science results from NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter portray the largest planet in our solar system as a complex, gigantic, turbulent world, with Earth-sized polar cyclones, plunging storm systems that travel deep into the heart of the gas giant, and a mammoth, lumpy magnetic field that may indicate it was generated closer to the planet’s surface than previously thought.

(First Science Results from NASA’s Juno Mission, NASA)

Researchers say they compared genetic materials from a 45,000-year-old mammoth to one that lived 4,300 years ago.

(Genetic ‘Mutational Meltdown’ Doomed Woolly Mammoths, VOA)

Some of the mutations caused the mammoths to lose olfactory receptors.

(Genetic ‘Mutational Meltdown’ Doomed Woolly Mammoths, VOA)

A genetic “mutational meltdown” helped push the woolly mammoth toward extinction, according to a new study.

(Genetic ‘Mutational Meltdown’ Doomed Woolly Mammoths, VOA)