mammoth
- any large, elephantlike mammal of the extinct genus Mammuthus, from the Pleistocene Epoch, having hairy skin and ridged molar teeth.
- immensely large; huge; enormous: a mammoth organization.
Origin of mammoth
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comRelated Words
enormous, colossal, monstrous, vast, large, immense, monumental, massive, prodigious, gigantic, gargantuan, high, giant, leviathan, elephantine, jumbo, long, mighty, mountainous, stupendousExamples from the Web for mammoth
Contemporary Examples
And then when you want something satisfying, splash out a few dollars for a mammoth cupcake.
It was absolutely mammoth—a mammoth task—and one that took an awful lot of preparation.
Game of Thrones’ Gwendoline Christie on Brienne of Tarth’s Epic S4 Finale Showdown with The HoundMarlow Stern
June 16, 2014
The fact that a mammoth celebrity felt so threatened by the mere implication of male-on-male intimacy is undeniably interesting.
An Analysis of Vitalii Sediuk’s Pranks (He’s the Guy Who Touched Brad Pitt)Amy Zimmerman
May 29, 2014
Mammoth locals did not wait to be asked by a president or a Veterans Affairs Administration official to act.
Kathy Copeland, an energetic Vermont native, arrived in Mammoth in the early 1970s and never left.
Historical Examples
The dessert was on the table before Clarence had done with the mammoth.
Tales And Novels, Volume 3 (of 10)Maria Edgeworth
He managed to get one corner of his mouth from behind that mammoth hand.
ShavingsJoseph C. Lincoln
It was time that made him mammoth, and it would not, could not, hurry.
FreeChildrenStories.com CollectionDaniel Errico
He had been trying to hide behind the chair a mammoth basket of fruit.
The Gorgeous GirlNalbro Bartley
Shorter than the tree-eater, it was still a thing of mammoth ugliness.
mammoth
- 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
- of gigantic size or importance
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for mammoth
n.
1706, from Russian mammot', probably from Ostyak, a Finno-Ugric language of northern Russia (cf. Finnish maa "earth"). Because the remains were dug from the earth, the animal was believed to root like a mole. As an adjective, "gigantic," from 1802; in this sense "the word appears to be originally American" [Thornton, "American Glossary"], and its first uses are in derogatory accounts to the cheese wheel, more than 4 feet in diameter, sent to President Jefferson by the ladies of the Baptist congregation in Cheshire, Mass., as a present, engraved with the motto "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." Federalist editors mocked the affair, and called up the word mammoth (known from Peale's exhibition) to characterize it.
mammoth
- 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.