anthill
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of anthill
1250–1300; Middle English amete hulle, ampte hille; see ant, hill
Explanation
The mounded nest that ants build out of dirt or sand is called an anthill. You can call a similar mound built by termites an anthill too. While an anthill is a kind of nest, it is generally formed when ants dig underground colonies and deposit the extra soil in one spot. In this way, an anthill is more of a doorway to a whole series of tunnels and nests, although the anthill itself will sometimes also contain nests. In some cases, ants shape the anthill into a specific, deliberate shape.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Rather than thinking of Schrödinger's cat, Bühler-Paschen says the experiment is more like an anthill.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 8, 2026
"If I buy fertilizer, it means my grandchildren will not go to school. I had to use anthill soil and compost as manure but, as you know, that will not yield much," said 50-year-old Kanenungo.
From Reuters ● Mar. 22, 2023
While wandering the sandy area by the parking lot to pass the time, I accidentally stepped on an anthill and the bugs swarmed my exposed foot.
From Slate ● Nov. 23, 2019
All this has had the uncomfortable effect of "shaking a stick inside an anthill", it suggests.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2018
They had gone only a short distance when Fiver, sitting up on an anthill to look about, saw a rabbit approaching over the high ground to the west.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
The sandfly commonly shelters in cracks in poorly plastered mud houses, anthills and soil fissures, multiplying during the rainy season after prolonged drought.
From Barron's ● Feb. 8, 2026
The rendition is hypnotic but also distancing, making these utopian dreamworlds seem even more artificial than they already were, now ungrounded in space and time, crowds moving en masse through cosmic anthills.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 14, 2026
Begay Sr. uses a walking stick to wind past pockets of yellow flowers, heavily trafficked anthills and the occasional prickly pear.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 30, 2023
And then fire threatens his family and all those issues become anthills in comparison to surviving this night.
From Salon ● Sep. 29, 2023
It avoided the clumps of nettles, and sidestepped known ditches and anthills.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
