mammoth

[mam-uhth]

noun

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

adjective

1. immensely large; huge; enormous.

   a mammoth organization.

mammoth

/ ˈmæməθ /

noun

1. 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

adjective

1. of gigantic size or importance

mammoth

1. 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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of mammoth¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of mammoth¹

C18: from Russian mamot, from Tatar mamont, perhaps from mamma earth, because of a belief that the animal made burrows

Synonym Study

See gigantic.

Example Sentences

LONDON—Jamie Dimon, barely done with one mammoth building project on New York’s Park Avenue, is embarking on another this side of the pond.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Tuesday's mammoth session of parliament ended late in the evening in Rome with a final speech by a governing party MP vowing that violence against women "will not be tolerated, will not go unpunished."

Read more on BBC

Former two-time unified heavyweight champion Joshua meets YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul - in what is, on paper, a mammoth mismatch - at Miami's Kaseya Center on 19 December.

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I look up to see a giant mammoth stomping its way through the crowd.

Read more on Literature

The plan then called for a mammoth floating crane, as tall as one of England’s largest cathedrals, to hook into the framework and raise it upward and sideways to a position directly above the cradle.

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Related Words

• colossal 
• enormous 
• gargantuan 
• gigantic 
• immense 
• large 
• massive 
• monstrous 
• monumental 
• prodigious 
• vast