# mountain

Pronunciation: US say "MOWN-tuhn" /ˈmaʊn.t(ə)n/; UK say "MOWN-tin" /ˈmaʊn.tɪn/

## Noun

1. A large landform that rises steeply and prominently above the surrounding land, usually with only a small area at its peak.
   - Simple: A very high piece of land with steep sides, much taller than a hill.
   - _The mountain rose sharply from the floor of the valley._
   - _Climbers spent weeks preparing to scale the mountain before winter set in._
2. A very large size or quantity of something; a huge heap or amount.
   - Simple: A very large amount or pile of something.
   - _After the holidays, a mountain of unopened mail sat by the front door._
   - _He faced a mountain of debt once the business collapsed._
3. A difficult task or challenge, often one that feels overwhelming to overcome.
   - Simple: A very hard task or problem that feels huge to deal with.
   - _Recovering from the scandal was a mountain the company never fully climbed._
   - _For a first-time author, finishing the manuscript can seem like a mountain._
4. A slang term for a woman's large breast. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A slang word for a woman's large breast.

## Other meanings

- (noun) The twenty-first card of the Lenormand deck, used in cartomancy.
- (noun) A wine from Malaga produced from grapes grown on a mountain.

## Origin

It comes from Middle English mountayne, borrowed through Anglo-Norman muntaine from Early Medieval Latin montānia, a collective form based on Latin montem ("mountain"). This traces back to Proto-Indo-European *monti and the root *men- ("to project, stick out"), with cognates such as Welsh mynydd ("mountain"). It displaced the native Old English words beorg and dūn.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/mountain (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).