mammoth
mammoths
The adjective mammoth is a great way to describe something really, really big, like those huge woolly elephants they’re still finding in the melting glaciers.
The word mammoth is a pretty new one, dating back only to around 1700. It was first only a noun from the Russian word mammot, meaning “earth,” and used to name the newly-discovered fossilized creature that was thought to have burrowed in the earth like a mole. The word, a rare Russian contribution to English, was not used as an adjective until around 1800 — notably when President Thomas Jefferson used it to describe a very large cheese.
Definitions of mammoth
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any of numerous extinct elephants widely distributed in the Pleistocene; extremely large with hairy coats and long upcurved tusks
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types:
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Mammuthus primigenius, northern mammoth, woolly mammoth
very hairy mammoth common in colder portions of the northern hemisphere
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Mammuthus columbi, columbian mammoth
a variety of mammoth
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Archidiskidon imperator, imperial elephant, imperial mammoth
largest known mammoth; of America
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type of:
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elephant
five-toed pachyderm
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Mammuthus primigenius, northern mammoth, woolly mammoth
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so exceedingly large or extensive as to suggest a giant or mammoth
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘mammoth'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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