butte
noun
an isolated hill or mountain rising abruptly above the surrounding land.
butte
1 American
[byoot]
/ bjut /
noun
Western U.S. and Canada.
-
buttes
plural
Butte
2
American
[byoot]
/ bjut /
noun
butte
British
/ bjuːt /
noun
butte
Scientific
/ byo̅o̅t /
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of butte
1650–60, < North American French; French: low hill, mound, Old French: landmark, target, apparently feminine derivative of but butt 2
Explanation
A butte is a flat-topped hill that stands alone in a relatively flat area. There are many buttes in the Southwest and Western United States. The dramatic hills in the background of old Western films are often buttes — the director John Ford featured Arizona's Mitten Buttes in seven of his movies. Geographers distinguish between a butte and a mesa, a larger, flat-topped hill: a butte's top is narrower than it is tall, and a mesa's is wider than its height. The explorers Lewis and Clark are responsible for introducing this French word to English speakers.
Vocabulary lists containing butte
Geological Features
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Physical Geography - Middle School
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The United States
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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:
The patterns also climb the sides of a nearby butte nicknamed "Miraflores."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
There are already wind turbines atop the butte, built by the landowning Galt family with Borgquist’s help.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2024
I left early, skipping breakfast to trek along the butte toward the Piz Boè.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 26, 2022
An Oregon butte unfortunately titled “Swastika Mountain” will be getting a new name in the near future.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 24, 2022
Small, rudely fashioned models of farmhouses and farmyards covered the top of the butte.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
The result is a near-real-time system that supplements the water allocation methods already used by the Elephant Butte Irrigation District.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 3, 2026
Blackstock, who died in August 2025 at the age of 48, purchased the Butte, Mont., property in April 2022 for an undisclosed amount, just one month after his divorce from Clarkson was finalized.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
Christian Parmelee Edwards, 44, was taken into custody March 19 at his home at 50730 Granite Butte Way, the Madera County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2026
“As such with limited material capex on the horizon and Black Butte potentially offloaded, we expect material returns from August,” analyst Levi Spry says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026
The good people of Butte seemed to get it.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
In 2003, the state of California spent about $3 million to buy 1,800 acres on the north side of the buttes, including an idyllic stretch of emerald called “Peace Valley.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2024
“I mean, everybody loves the profile of the buttes when they pass it, but once they get inside, I mean, they’re hooked.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2024
While the scene’s arid landscape conjures up past “Mad Max” adventures, the buttes and the galloping horse evoke the classic westerns from which this series has drawn some of its mythopoetic force.
From New York Times ● May 15, 2024
Across 15,000 square miles, between Spokane, Quincy and Walla Walla, the landscape is teeming with desolate cliffs, buttes and canyons.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 2, 2024
Number of additional ankle twists on the rocky grounds of North Dakota’s hills and buttes: four, maybe more.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
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.
