mammoth

American  

[mam-uhth] / ˈmæm əθ /

noun

• mammoths
  plural

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 British  

/ 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 Scientific  

/ măm′əth /

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.

---

Synonym Usage

See gigantic.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• mammoths
  plural

---

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

---

Explanation

The adjective mammoth is a great way to describe something really, really big, like those huge woolly elephants they’re still finding in the melting glaciers. The word mammoth is a pretty new one, dating back only to around 1700. It was first only a noun from the Russian word mammot, meaning “earth,” and used to name the newly-discovered fossilized creature that was thought to have burrowed in the earth like a mole. The word, a rare Russian contribution to English, was not used as an adjective until around 1800 — notably when President Thomas Jefferson used it to describe a very large cheese.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mammoth mammoths

At an Alaskan research station she inhales the scent of oxidizing permafrost: “Pleistocene-aged grass, mammoth bones, and thousands and thousands of years of microbial cells.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

At great peril they sometimes hunt the mammoth for its meat and its large bones and tusks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

Ellison is frustrated after securing approvals from more than 65 regulators worldwide for the mammoth merger that would bring HBO, CNN, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV and TBS under the same roof.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

SpaceX’s half-billion-dollar fee pool is expected to be a mere appetizer as Anthropic and OpenAI prepare to launch their own mammoth IPOs in the coming months.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026

We walk to Millennium Park, where the mammoth bean sculpture reflects the moonlight, and then down a set of stairs.

From "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth

According to UK Fossils, Suffolk is "well known" for its fossils from the Pleistocene era - also known as the Great Ice Age - including those belonging to mammoths.

From BBC ● Apr. 10, 2026

Sora transfixed the tech world by creating seemingly realistic videos of everything from woolly mammoths trekking across a snowy field to a stylish woman walking down a Tokyo street filled with glowing neon signs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026

It peers across the street at the bubbling La Brea Tar Pits with their fiber-glass mammoths and saber-tooth cats.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2025

In museums, there are dioramas with cave people hunting mammoths with spears and movies are filled with examples of aggressive ancestors.

From Salon ● Dec. 9, 2024

They developed new weapons and sophisticated hunting techniques that enabled them to track and kill mammoths and the other big game of the far north.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

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

---