cerro

American  

[ser-oh] / ˈsɛr oʊ /

noun

• cerros
  plural

1. Southwestern U.S. a hill or peak.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cerros
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of cerro

An Americanism first recorded in 1825–35 from Spanish: literally, “hill, backbone, neck of an animal,” from Latin cirrus “curl, tuft” (with shift: from “curly hair,” to “hair on an animal's neck,” to “neck or spine,” to “hill”)

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cerro cerros

The dwelling at the bottom of the cerro was an old shack beyond repair.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall

Pita lifted her head long enough to look down the cerro.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall

We walked so far and for so long, we almost dropped Pita a couple of times before we reached the crest of the cerro.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall

We were barely over the cerro when we saw them to the right of us, in a clearing, on yet another hill: hundreds of snout-nosed butterflies hovering over dozens of rosebushes.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall

It is the same sound which the Italians give to the c simple before i and e, as citta, cerro.

From A Grammar of the English Tongue by Samuel Johnson

Guaidó often says that his message is gaining support in the cerros, but most people I spoke to there seemed too accustomed to crisis to believe in the possibility of transformative change.

From The New Yorker ● Jun. 3, 2019

He trotted her west, across the grassy flat toward the cerros, gently rounded hills of dark lava rock which were covered with a thin crust of topsoil and grass, edged with thickets of scrub oak.

From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko

He rode miles across dry lake flats and over rocky cerros until he came to a high fence of heavy-gauge steel mesh with three strands of barbed wire across the top.

From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko

In late fall, as the deer moved down with each snowstorm, the people hunted the foothills and cerros and the grassy dry lake flats of the big plateau.

From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko

As the train approaches its destination the passengers see in the distance the three cerros of Paraguari.

From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 15, No. 90, June, 1875 by Various

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