mountain
(maʊntɪn , US -tən )
Word forms: mountains
1. countable noun A2
A mountain is a very high area of land with steep sides.
Ben Nevis, in Scotland, is Britain's highest mountain.
...a lovely little mountain village.
Synonyms: peak, mount, height, ben [Scottish]
2. quantifier B2
If you talk about a mountain of something, or mountains of something, you are emphasizing that there is a large amount of it. [informal, emphasis]
They are faced with a mountain of bureaucracy.
They have mountains of coffee to sell.
3. a mountain to climb phrase
If you say that someone has a mountain to climb, you mean that it will be difficult for them to achieve what they want to achieve. [journalism]
'We had a mountain to climb after the second goal went in,' said Crosby.
4. to make a mountain out of a molehill phrase
If you say that someone is making a mountain out of a molehill, you are critical of them for making an unimportant fact or difficulty seem like a serious one. [disapproval]
The British press, making a mountain out of a molehill, precipitated an unnecessary economic crisis.
Image of mountain
© Vaclav Volrab, Shutterstock
Quotations:
If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet must go to the mountain
Idioms:
make a mountain out of a molehill
to make a small, unimportant problem seem big and important
It's unlikely that Smith will be punished; you are making a mountain out of a molehill.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
the mountain must go to Mohammed
said to mean that if someone you want to see does not come to you, then you must go to them
The mountain must go to Mohammed; we'll send a man tomorrow.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
a mountain to climb [mainly British]
something that will be difficult to achieve
We nearly beat Warrington in the Cup last season and although it's a mountain to climb, we can do it.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Collocations:
high mountain holy mountain mountain biking mountain path mountain peak mountain resort mountain retreat mountain ridge mountain rises mountain river mountain scenery mountain snow mountain stream mountain summit mountain terrain mountain town mountain trail mountain trek mountain valley mountain village mountain vista mountain wilderness mountains surround remote mountain rugged mountain sacred mountain scale a mountain snow-capped mountain snow-covered mountain steep mountain tall mountain towering mountain volcanic mountain
It also caused an avalanche on the world's highest mountain.
The Sun (2015)
It is part of a bid to become the first person to climb each continent's highest mountain and cross both polar ice caps.
The Sun (2017)
She said that on reaching the top of a high mountain she couldn't help but feel on top of the world.
EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER: A Journey Through the Science of Feelings (2005)
All are valid to their adherents and deserve reasonable respect: there are many ways up the holy mountain.
Times, Sunday Times
I eagerly await a crushing response from macro-economists up on the holy mountain, but that's how it looks from down here.
Times, Sunday Times
The road to the holy mountain turns sharply to the east and begins to climb.
Smithsonian
Many ways up the holy mountain, all that.
Times, Sunday Times
The prince arrived under the holy tree of sandalwood on the holy mountain, where he founded his holy city.
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There are nine golf courses, sea and river fishing, an annual walking festival, diving, windsurfing, canoeing, sailing and cycling and mountain biking tracks.
The Sun (2008)
Activities available each day include hiking, rock climbing, pony trekking, hydro-speeding, mountain biking, white-water rafting and zip-wiring.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
Visit in summer and you'll be spoiled for choice, with pony trekking, mountain biking, lake swimming, canoeing, paragliding, tennis and golf.
The Sun (2012)
Local activities include archery, zip-wire, mountain biking and kayaking.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
Trout fishing can be arranged and activities include kayaking, rock climbing, archery and mountain biking.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
At the back of the village, a mountain path leads past oak, fig and olive trees along the side of a deep, verdant gorge that marks the border.
Times, Sunday Times
Pilgrimages developed soon thereafter once a possible relic of the saint was reported and still thousands of pilgrims climb the mountain path each year.
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You can wander around the mountain paths and medieval villages and wail along to your heart's content.
Times, Sunday Times
Each day, we walked the mountain paths for several hours and then returned to our hotel for evening dinner and conversation.
Christianity Today
I am scared of walking up windy mountain paths with steep drops.
Times, Sunday Times
The strokes that produced a happy little cloud, a meandering river or an icy mountain peak were brisk and certain.
Times,Sunday Times
The ragged mountain peak off my right wing blots out the northern horizon.
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A lone mountain peak sends the prevailing northerly winds into streets of swirling clouds.
Times,Sunday Times
The warm haze of the metropolis beyond spreads low over the base of a mountain peak.
Times, Sunday Times
Like heli-skiing, competent bikers looking to push themselves beyond the limit are flown to the top of a mountain peak inaccessible by any other means, in a helicopter.
Times, Sunday Times
They'll also point out that you can rent high-quality skis in every mainstream mountain resort.
Times, Sunday Times
It's a chemical reaction replicated in every mountain resort: adrenaline + alcohol = euphoria.
Times, Sunday Times
A retreat for ministers and spouses in a mountain resort area.
Christianity Today
They thought they had found sanctuary in the picturesque mountain resort, then the siege began.
Times, Sunday Times
As a result of global warming, the hills are alive with the sound of a new concept: the four-season mountain resort.
Times, Sunday Times
The six-bedroom mountain retreat has been comfortably restyled.
Times, Sunday Times
Will it be a river cruise, or a mountain retreat?
The Sun
You take a cable car to reach this cool, minimalist and very modern mountain retreat.
Times, Sunday Times
He awoke to find himself in a bed in a mountain retreat, being tended to by a monk who had discovered him unconscious that morning.
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He was forced to leave his mountain retreat after his sponsor had stopped supporting him.
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It was to have been the world's longest dragon, snaking its 21km (13-mile) concrete body through a national forest park along a mountain ridge.
Times, Sunday Times
The mountain ridge runs in a north-south direction covering about 10 km.
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With a summit elevation of and a topographic prominence of, it rises above the surrounding rugged landscape on an alpine mountain ridge.
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The importance of the location was that it was at a pass in a mountain ridge.
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Inscriptions from the city's beginnings found at the sanctuary on the spur of the mountain ridge are noteworthy.
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The mountain rises sheer, punctuated by glaciers.
Times, Sunday Times
The mountain rises up to 4475m ft above sea level.
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The mountain rises 1249m ft and offers an impressive view over the city.
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The solitary mountain rises to 2145m ft from an otherwise flat area.
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The mountain rises over 200 metres above the surrounding land, its summit reaching 520 metres above sea level.
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For this part of its course it has the character of a swift moving mountain river with numerous small waterfalls and rapids.
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For example, a mountain river depositing sediment into a freshwater lake would form this kind of delta.
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Owing to this complicated river system the name in catchment area of this mountain river has changed from place to place.
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There it has an average width of 6080 m and flows as a typical mountain river.
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He described several other styles of rock garden, which usually included a stream or pond, including the great river style, the mountain river style, and the marsh style.
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They will also offer the chance to get close to the mountain scenery, visiting glaciers, thundering waterfalls and improbably steep mountain railways.
Times, Sunday Times
As well as the spectacular mountain scenery, there are a number of medieval monasteries perched on top of rocky outcrops to discover en route.
Times, Sunday Times
The mountain scenery flashed by as an endless succession of bends began to unravel.
The Sun
Against mountain scenery, in particular, people add scale to really increase the wow factor.
The Sun
It forces us to slow to a crawl — which leaves plenty of time to take in the mountain scenery.
The Sun
As a result, the mountain snow has picked up a red tinge.
Times,Sunday Times
The flight was a delight, offering aerial views of the unblemished mountain snow and glaciers.
The Sun
However, northern parts look set to remain cold, with the threat of further mountain snow.
Times, Sunday Times
Autumn has been evident for a while, notably in the north where summer failed so badly that mountain snow persisted and spring merged seamlessly into autumn.
Times, Sunday Times
It has its highest flows when the mountain snow melts during the spring thaw.
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I like to find the perfect mountain stream.
Times, Sunday Times
Like a mountain stream, it cascades down waterfalls and through small ravines.
Times, Sunday Times
And the setting for our camp was idyllic, next to a rushing mountain stream.
Times, Sunday Times
Outside was an open-air shower and a stone plunge pool replenished by a cool mountain stream.
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The whisper of a mountain stream?
Times, Sunday Times
The mountain summit that afternoon was thus evacuated with a dispirited opposition wondering: how do you respond to that?
Times, Sunday Times
The exhilaration of a mountain summit or the thrill of abseiling into a gorge are experiences that will stay with them.
Times, Sunday Times
The mountain summit receives an average of 180in cm of snowfall each winter.
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For example, photos of a mountain summit can be taken from different positions miles apart.
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The mountain summit receives an average of 50 in of snow fall each winter.
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In each of the five years of study he covered hundreds of miles on foot, often over precipitous mountain terrain.
Times, Sunday Times
How did they conquer the treacherous mountain terrain?
Times, Sunday Times
High, broad and brilliantly engineered, vast stretches of wild mountain terrain have been turned into safe and seamless winter playgrounds.
Times, Sunday Times
The commodities are paper (which comes from forest terrain), coin (from mountain terrain), and cloth (from pasture terrain).
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The area has rugged mountain terrain with altitudes up to.
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However, it’s far from the only draw this picturesque mountain town has going for it.
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A perfect little mountain town, down to the toy-like railroad running through the middle of it.
Times, Sunday Times
Nationalist myths, memories and mistrust still run strong through the mountain town.
Times, Sunday Times
So growing up in my poor little mountain town, north up the river from the city, features heavily in the themes.
The Sun
Abandoned houses dot the small mountain town and surrounding areas, silent witnesses of the horror that occurred.
Times, Sunday Times
Yesterday her pink jacket was found on a mountain trail just outside the town where she was last seen.
Times, Sunday Times
They panicked, diverting at high speed up a mountain trail.
Times,Sunday Times
There, near the start of a mountain trail and about 20 miles from the hotel, detectives found a body by the roadside.
Times,Sunday Times
He describes the day he went back down the mountain trail to catch his flight home as the worst of his life.
Times, Sunday Times
After recovering from tuberculosis he took up mountain trail running and then, at 63, began rowing competitively, but the effort left him short of breath.
Times, Sunday Times
Yes, it's a pretty specialised form of travel, but the advantages of going with a group on a mountain trek are the advantages of going with a group anywhere.
Times, Sunday Times
Suggested walks range from gentle hour-long ambles to serious mountain treks that will take several days.
Times, Sunday Times
Sports such as skiing, mountain trekking, climbing, and sailing are actively encouraged.
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This area offers abundant scope for mountain trekking.
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You stay in one of the radical houses, set in a mountain valley.
Times, Sunday Times
The municipality occupies a mountain valley with an average altitude of 600 metres.
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He cleared a rich mountain valley on both sides of a clear trout creek.
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Since then, the survivors humans, elves and other mutants have found sanctuary in a mountain valley protected by magic.
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The resort itself occupies a high mountain valley.
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I am minded to try to repeat the experience this year so could you recommend a holiday in a similar mountain village for a party of ten?
Times, Sunday Times
In summer the crowds leave and it's a charming mountain village.
Times, Sunday Times
From shanzai, a mountain village or warlord's stronghold.
Times, Sunday Times
I am staying in the doctor's tent in a remote mountain village nearly three miles above sea level.
The Sun
It crashed 1.85km mi away from the launch pad into a nearby mountain village.
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But that's what we look for in false eyelashes: an effect so sweeping, it resembles an awesome mountain vista.
Times, Sunday Times
The 1888 structure cost $250,000 and a mistake made by the builder changed the intended orientation of the building, turning its back on the mountain vista.
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One offers sea views, the other mountain vistas; both have three bedrooms and an outdoor pool.
Times, Sunday Times
Your nose will be pressed up against the car window for the duration, as you take in the snowcapped mountain vistas.
Times, Sunday Times
It overlooked river gorges, contained broad hills and had sweeping mountain vistas, but it was seven long miles from the railroad.
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Every spring, three generations of their family herd thousands of reindeer across an ice-bound mountain wilderness to the summer grazing grounds 155 miles away.
Times, Sunday Times
People would come for tourism, they would come to ski and climb and experience this pristine mountain wilderness, and he would fly them there.
Times,Sunday Times
These early works portrayed a dramatic and untamed mountain wilderness.
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A ring of coastal mountains surround low plains at the centre of the island.
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Steep hills and mountains surround rolling to nearly level alluvial terraces.
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High mountains surround the lake.
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The snow-covered mountains surround the town.
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It was hoped they may be alive but cut off in remote mountain areas.
The Sun
Commanders had needed a guarantee of clear skies to fly paratroopers into the remote mountain bases.
The Sun
They had been hidden away in the hills and forests and remote mountain farms.
Times, Sunday Times
It stays there, as remote mountain communities with limited transport aren't organised for recycling and disposal.
Times, Sunday Times
Life in a remote mountain area can be difficult enough without predators making it even tougher.
The Sun
The sky was a glowering purple and all we could see was rugged mountain ridges blanketed in green forest.
Times,Sunday Times
Phoenix itself offers a heady mix of urban sophistication and rugged mountain ranges.
The Sun
Ten minutes of sneaking through rugged mountain country can be surrounded by 20 more of watching waffly footage.
Times, Sunday Times
Here are a lonely farm, the remains of a monastery whose tower conceals a tiny chapel, a rugged mountain to climb, and a vivid spattering of wild flowers.
Times, Sunday Times
The terrain generally ranges from 345to399 m above sea level with rugged mountain areas.
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I was enthralled — there could not have been two finer people to be the first on the sacred mountain.
Times, Sunday Times
His mythical home, a sacred mountain at the top of the world, represents the axis mundi.
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The frieze combines imagery of rulers with that of a sacred mountain.
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It has been worshiped as a sacred mountain from the time of antiquity.
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As many as 84 tirhas or holy centres were believed to have been situated on this sacred mountain but all except six have disappeared.
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Forty-one groups with a total of 378 climbers have been permitted to scale the mountain during the spring season.
Times, Sunday Times
The explorer - who had triple bypass surgery after a heart attack in 2003 - experienced heart problems during his first unsuccessful attempt to scale the mountain two years later.
Times, Sunday Times
You know the feeling: every time you think you have scaled the mountain, you turn another bend and see it still towering before you.
Times, Sunday Times
Think driving across the beach to get closer to the surf rather than scaling a mountain to rescue an errant sheep.
Times, Sunday Times
Those who have scaled the mountain of mammon have often done so because they are energetic, innovative, demanding of progress by lunchtime.
Times, Sunday Times
Even so, the bump was plainly revealed (for three seconds) when she was thrown off a sled careering down a snow-capped mountain.
Times, Sunday Times
Both run big, beautiful countries with long, snow-capped mountain ranges and vast, irradiated nuclear test sites.
Times, Sunday Times
The antlers are in space, apparently above a snow-capped mountain range.
The Times Literary Supplement
The state has snow-capped mountain ranges, rapids, vast lakes and steep canyons.
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It starts at the top of a snow-capped mountain remnicent of typical snowboarding games.
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You can dive in and do lengths as you inhale the sweet, pungent smell of cedar and enjoy the view of snow-covered mountain ranges.
Times, Sunday Times
We crossed the border by wading across an icy river, then clambered over a snow-covered mountain to a contact waiting with a vehicle.
Times, Sunday Times
There you are on holiday, carving your way down a snow-covered mountain.
Times, Sunday Times
The chance to blast about on a snow-covered mountain, with the sun in your eyes and your friends snapping at your heels, comes around much less often.
Times, Sunday Times
Before the latter action, he led his soldiers over snow-covered mountain trails to reach the battlefield.
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They will also offer the chance to get close to the mountain scenery, visiting glaciers, thundering waterfalls and improbably steep mountain railways.
Times, Sunday Times
We walked up the steep mountain, past avocado groves and fruit trees - peach, orange, lime - with the early-morning pink glow touching the dark branches.
Times, Sunday Times
Strong winds have built up large shelves of snow hanging off cliffs and steep mountain sides.
Times, Sunday Times
However, it will be a steep mountain to climb.
Times, Sunday Times
The arduous: four or five-day treks that traverse steep mountain passes.
Times, Sunday Times
So we are having to climb down from a very tall mountain.
Times, Sunday Times
Rocks surround the coastline with a tall mountain to the west and more in the southeast featuring tiny rocky islets.
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The 74 m tall mountain lies on the northwest side of the island.
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They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain.
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The ocean borders the kingdom to the west, and tall mountain range raises above the land to the east.
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Famed for its amazing beaches and fringed by towering mountain ranges, the city's citizens live, sleep, eat and breathe football.
The Sun
The towering mountains and tropical flowers were a far cry from the heat below.
Times, Sunday Times
The train travels through dense rainforests and towering mountains past golden temples; rubber plantations and fields of frangiapani, tapioca, sunflowers and mango orchards; and remote towns and villages.
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Lines of infantry converge on a volcanic mountain landscape beneath ashen skies that look almost lunar.
Times,Sunday Times
Both islands are part of an extinct volcanic mountain range.
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The tall, volcanic mountain range acts like a natural barrier, blocking dry winds and strong sun shine.
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As such, they are not counted among the world volcanic mountain peaks.
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It has poor rainfall compared to the volcanic mountain areas to the north and east.
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Translations:
Chinese: 山
Japanese: 山
- justify the expense
- justify the hype
- justify the means
- justify the need for
- justify the price
- justify war
- just in case
- just in case
- just incredible
- just-in-time delivery
- just jealous
- just laugh
- just like that
- justly
- justly
- justly famous
- justly proud
- just mean
- just my luck
- just need to
- just nod
- just nonsense
- just not on
- just now
- just on