boulder

or bowl·der

[ bohl-der ]

See synonyms for boulder on Thesaurus.com

noun

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

Origin of boulder

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) + stenstone

Other words from boulder

bouldered, adjective
boul·der·y, adjective

Words that may be confused with boulder

1. bolder, boulder
2. boulder , cobblestone, granule, pebble, rock, stone

Other definitions for Boulder (2 of 2)

Boulder

[ bohl-der ]

noun

a city in N Colorado.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use boulder in a sentence

In slide rock and in bouldery moraines up as high as thirteen thousand feet, one finds the pika, or cony.
The Rocky Mountain Wonderland | Enos A. Mills
The alluvial fans (Rattlesnake Formation) in front of the mountains were built up of bouldery gravels and finer sediments.
The Geologic Setting of the John Day Country | Thomas Prence Thayer

British Dictionary definitions for boulder

boulder

/ (ˈbəʊldə) /

noun

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

Origin of boulder

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

Derived forms of boulder

bouldery, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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