MOUNTAIN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does mountain mean? 

• MOUNTAIN (noun)
  The noun MOUNTAIN has 2 senses:

1. a land mass that projects well above its surroundings; higher than a hill

2. (often followed by 'of') a large number or amount or extent

  Familiarity information: MOUNTAIN used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MOUNTAIN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A land mass that projects well above its surroundings; higher than a hill

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

mount; mountain

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

elevation; natural elevation (a raised or elevated geological formation)

Meronyms (parts of "mountain"):

mountain peak (the summit of a mountain)

mountainside; versant (the side or slope of a mountain)

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

alp (any high mountain)

ben (a mountain or tall hill)

seamount (an underwater mountain rising above the ocean floor)

volcano (a mountain formed by volcanic material)

Instance hyponyms:

Black Hills (mountains in western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming)

Derivation:

mountaineer (someone who climbs mountains)

mountainous (containing many mountains)

mountainous (having hills and crags)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(often followed by 'of') a large number or amount or extent

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

batch; deal; flock; good deal; great deal; hatful; heap; lot; mass; mess; mickle; mint; mountain; muckle; passel; peck; pile; plenty; pot; quite a little; raft; sight; slew; spate; stack; tidy sum; wad

Context example:

a wad of money

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

large indefinite amount; large indefinite quantity (an indefinite quantity that is above the average in size or magnitude)

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

deluge; flood; inundation; torrent (an overwhelming number or amount)

haymow (a mass of hay piled up in a barn for preservation)

 Context examples 

Dear mountains! my own beautiful lake! how do you welcome your wanderer?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Yet we must leave you now, for I must be with the King of Spain ere your army crosses the mountains.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Where the river swung in against precipitous bluffs, he climbed the high mountains behind.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The man from the forest stood before it, began to eat, and by the end of one day the whole mountain had vanished.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

It seemed as though the mountain range had separated two atmospheres, and that now we had got into the thunderous one.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The mountains are probably composed of Pluto’s water-ice “bedrock.”

(The Icy Mountains of Pluto, NASA)

Because mountain watersheds provide large reservoirs of water, the new findings are relevant to water resource management throughout the U.S.

(Study explores how rock expands near soil surface in Sierra Nevada, National Science Foundation)

What are young men to rocks and mountains?

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Each rolling mountain whelmed them from view, and I would wait with sickening anxiety, fearing that they would never appear again.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I traced the white road winding round the base of one mountain, and vanishing in a gorge between two; how I longed to follow it farther!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)