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
Gone were the photographers who climbed the butte overlooking the practice facility — known as Shohei Mountain — to get aerial shots of Ohtani’s arrival.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 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
The eagle screamed to announce his success, then flew toward a distant butte.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
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
In Northern California, an Idaho man visiting his family in Butte County survived after being bitten twice and hospitalized for 12 days.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 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
A new study on Sandfire Resources America’s Black Butte project shows a lower return than what was estimated five years ago, Morgan Stanley analysts say in a note.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025
The good people of Butte seemed to get it.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Beneath that are breathtaking photos: sunlight glinting off a placid lake; a dirt road leading up a verdant hill; a haunting photo of the buttes at sunset — from a distance.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2024
In 2003, Westrup heard through an intermediary that someone with land in the buttes was looking to sell.
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
The river where the Battle of Little Bighorn took place coursed through the land, prairie extended into pine trees and high buttes beckoned with even wider-ranging views.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 27, 2023
But humans being what they are, and I being human, I turned off the highway on a shaley road and headed in among the buttes, but with a shyness as though I crashed a party.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
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.
