cordillera
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cordillera
First recorded in 1695–1705; from Spanish, derivative of cordilla, diminutive of cuerda “rope, string” (from Latin chorda ). Cordillera originally applied to the Andes Mountains in South America and later to the same mountain chain in Central America and Mexico; see origin at cord
Explanation
A cordillera is an extensive system of mountain ranges. Large and small mountain ranges, plateaus, and valleys running parallel to each other are all part of a cordillera. The word cordillera was first used around 1700 by Spanish colonizers and geographers to describe the Andes Mountains, a system of mountain ranges stretching thousands of miles through South America. Today, the word is used more generally to refer to any extensive mountain system. In North America, the mountain system that includes the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, and the Cascades is often called a cordillera; it extends from Alaska and western Canada, through the western United States, and into Mexico. The word cordillera comes from a Spanish word meaning "rope."
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.
Words, so many words were extinguished one by one in the silence of the cordillera, which remains even now silent and unchanging in its illusion of eternity.
From Salon ● Jun. 15, 2019
The morning after the knock on her door, Crump trekked up the cordillera, through a soup of fog, mud, and drizzle.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 8, 2018
The scenery would have been enough to draw me to the cordillera, with its upthrust layers of multicolored sedimentary rock set around a crater that’s encircled by rugged river canyons.
From New York Times ● Mar. 23, 2016
Chile is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries because just off the coast the Nazca tectonic plate plunges beneath the South American plate, pushing the towering Andes cordillera to ever-higher altitudes.
From US News ● Sep. 17, 2015
Towards the west, dark clouds shroud the mountains as far as Constanza and on through the whole cordillera to the far reaches of Haiti.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
