Synonyms

mammoth

American

[mam-uhth] / ˈmæm əθ /

noun

any large, elephantlike mammal of the extinct genus Mammuthus, from the Pleistocene Epoch, having hairy skin and ridged molar teeth.

adjective

immensely large; huge; enormous.

a mammoth organization.

mammoth British

/ ˈmæməθ /

noun

any large extinct elephant of the Pleistocene genus Mammuthus (or Elephas ), such as M. primigenius ( woolly mammoth ), having a hairy coat and long curved tusks

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

adjective

of gigantic size or importance

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

mammoth Scientific

/ măm′əth /

Any of various extinct elephants of the genus Mammuthus, having long, upwardly curving tusks and thick hair. Mammoths grew to great size and lived throughout the Northern Hemisphere during the Ice Age.

Related Words

See gigantic.

Etymology

Origin of mammoth

1690–1700; < Russian mam(m)ot (now mámont ), first used in reference to remains of the animal found in Siberia; origin uncertain

Compare meaning

How does mammoth compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

mastodon vs. mammoth

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 researchers discerned patterns of meaning in lines, notches, dots, and crosses on objects like mammoth tusks as old as 45,000 years in caves in Germany.

From BBC

In Vogelherd Cave in Lone Valley, for example, archaeologists uncovered a small mammoth figurine carved from mammoth ivory.

From Science Daily

A mammoth chip-manufacturing facility is rising, along with U.S. hopes of revitalizing a crucial industry.

From The Wall Street Journal

LLM developers like OpenAI are directing much of the mammoth investment they have received into Nvidia's products, rushing to build GPU-stuffed data centers to serve an anticipated flood of demand for AI services.

From Barron's

They also compared the bone of modern elephants and steppe mammoths to determine which animal it came from.

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023