cordillera
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived 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.
The picture, which now hangs in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, offers a panorama of an alpine landscape, with the snow-covered Cordillera Occidental rising in the distance.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 1, 2026
Chile’s national disaster agency said on Wednesday night that several communities in the Valparaíso region were being evacuated as emergency crews battled the Cerro Cordillera fire.
From New York Times • Mar. 13, 2024
Three of the five new species are endemic to the eastern Cordillera of Colombia, where they occupy cloud forests and coffee plantations.
From Science Daily • Feb. 12, 2024
Heavy rainfall was expected later on Sunday and on Monday in the provinces of Isabela, Cagayan, Ilocos and the mountainous Cordillera region, raising the risk of flooding and landslides, the weather bureau said.
From Reuters • Aug. 27, 2023
Around the small city of Moquegua the river hoves back into view and the highway abruptly pitches into the Cordillera Negra.
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.
