boulder

¹

Or bowl·der

[bohl-der]

noun

1. a detached and rounded or worn rock, especially a large one.

Boulder

²

[bohl-der]

noun

1. a city in N Colorado.

boulder

/ ˈbəʊldə /

noun

1. a smooth rounded mass of rock that has a diameter greater than 25cm and that has been shaped by erosion and transported by ice or water from its original position

2. geology a rock fragment with a diameter greater than 256 mm and thus bigger than a cobble

Other Word Forms

• bouldered adjective
• bouldery adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of boulder¹

1610–20; short for boulder stone; Middle English bulderston < Scandinavian; compare dialectal Swedish bullersten big stone (in a stream), equivalent to buller rumbling noise (< Old Swedish bulder ) + sten stone

Word History and Origins

Origin of boulder¹

C13: probably of Scandinavian origin; compare Swedish dialect bullersten , from Old Swedish bulder rumbling + sten _stone

Example Sentences

I feel the rough texture of a boulder, chafing against my fingers.

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He felt like a blade of grass caught between two boulders.

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A large portion of the wreck was covered with enormous boulders, which had broken away from the cliffs that lined Antikythera’s shore sometime during the two thousand years the wreck had lain on the seabed.

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They can be minor, covering roads and driveways with muck, or large and destructive, capable of moving cars at speeds of up to 35 mph and pummeling homes with boulders and a wall of mud.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Nearby, large boulders tumbled onto Highway 14, blocking lanes of traffic.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• hunk 
• ingot 
• lump 
• piece 
• plate 
• rod 
• slice 
• stone 
• strip 
• wedge