butte
1 Americannoun
noun
noun
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.
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
An Oregon butte unfortunately titled “Swastika Mountain” will be getting a new name in the near future.
From Washington Times • Aug. 24, 2022
“Cash Up can not be other than voted an enterprising and progressive man. His advertising the butte as he is not only benefits himself, but the entire country and community.”
From Seattle Times • Aug. 5, 2022
One cold winter solstice day, we found ourselves alone on the summit of a rock-topped butte, watching transfixed as a huge black cloud barreled toward us in an otherwise blue sky.
From New York Times • Mar. 18, 2022
Small, rudely fashioned models of farmhouses and farmyards covered the top of the butte.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
