mammoth

[mam-uh th]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR mammoth ON THESAURUS.COM

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.

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

Synonyms for mammoth

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR mammoth ON THESAURUS.COM

2. See gigantic.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for mammoth

enormous, colossal, monstrous, vast, large, immense, monumental, massive, prodigious, gigantic, gargantuan, high, giant, leviathan, elephantine, jumbo, long, mighty, mountainous, stupendous

Examples from the Web for mammoth

Contemporary Examples of mammoth

And then when you want something satisfying, splash out a few dollars for a mammoth cupcake.
The Cupcake Boom’s Sugar High Finally Crashes
Daniel Gross
July 8, 2014
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 Hound
Marlow 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.
Homefront Veterans: Skiing With Wounded Warriors
John Kael Weston
February 17, 2014
Kathy Copeland, an energetic Vermont native, arrived in Mammoth in the early 1970s and never left.
Homefront Veterans: Skiing With Wounded Warriors
John Kael Weston
February 17, 2014

Historical Examples of mammoth

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.
Shavings
Joseph C. Lincoln
It was time that made him mammoth, and it would not, could not, hurry.
FreeChildrenStories.com Collection
Daniel Errico
He had been trying to hide behind the chair a mammoth basket of fruit.
The Gorgeous Girl
Nalbro Bartley
Jerry struggled with a mammoth boulder,—Winslow leaping to his aid.
Astounding Stories of Super-Science, June, 1930
Various

British Dictionary definitions for mammoth

mammoth

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

adjective

of gigantic size or importance

Word Origin for mammoth

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

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

Word Origin and History for mammoth

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 in Science

mammoth

[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.