mound

¹ American  

[mound] / maʊnd /

noun

1. a natural elevation of earth; a hillock or knoll.

2. an artificial elevation of earth, as for a defense work or a dam or barrier; an embankment.

3. a heap or raised mass.

   a mound of papers;

   a mound of hay.

4. Baseball. the slightly raised ground from which the pitcher delivers the ball.

5. an elevation formed of earth, sand, stones, etc., especially over a grave or ruins.

6. a tumulus or other raised work of earth dating from a prehistoric or long-past period.

---

verb (used with object)

• mounds,
  present (3rd person singular)
• mounded,
  past participle,  past
• mounding
  present participle

1. to form into a mound; heap up.

2. to furnish with a mound of earth, as for a defense.

mound ² American  

[mound] / maʊnd /

noun

1. a globe topped with a cross that symbolizes power and constitutes part of the regalia of an English sovereign.

---

mound ¹ British  

/ maʊnd /

noun

1. a raised mass of earth, debris, etc

2. any heap or pile

   a mound of washing

3. a small natural hill

4. archaeol another word for barrow 2

5. an artificial ridge of earth, stone, etc, as used for defence

---

verb

1. (often foll by up) to gather into a mound; heap

2. (tr) to cover or surround with a mound

   to mound a grave

mound ² British  

/ maʊnd /

noun

1. heraldry a rare word for orb

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unmounded
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• mounding
  present
• mounded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• mound
  simple
• mounds
  simple
• have mounded
  perfect
• has mounded
  perfect
• am mounding
  progressive
• are mounding
  progressive
• is mounding
  progressive
• have been mounding
  perfect progressive
• has been mounding
  perfect progressive

Past

• mounded
  simple
• had mounded
  perfect
• was mounding
  progressive
• were mounding
  progressive
• had been mounding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will mound
  simple
• will have mounded
  perfect
• will be mounding
  progressive
• will have been mounding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of mound¹

First recorded in 1505–15; of obscure origin; noun “hedge or fence used as a boundary or protection,” verb “to enclose with a fence”; compare Old English mund “hand,” hence “protection, protector”; cognate with Old Norse mund “hand,” Middle Dutch mond “protection”

Origin of mound²

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English mounde, mundie, from Old French monde, munde, from Latin mundus “world”

Explanation

A mound is a heap or a pile of material or objects. You can make a mound of clothes by dumping your laundry onto your bed. The noun mound is occasionally used to mean "a hill," but it most often describes a manmade pile, like a mound of stones or a mound of sand heaped on the beach, or a mound of snow that you sculpt into a rabbit. On a baseball diamond, the pitcher's mound is the little rise on which the pitcher stands to throw the ball. As a verb, mound means to pile something into a heaped shape.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mound mounds mounded mounding

Díaz took the mound and hit Andrew Vaughn with his seventh pitch, generating a smattering of boos.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026

Ohtani did something similar last season, but then, he was returning to the mound for the first time since 2023 elbow surgery.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026

But Major League Baseball today isn’t defined by crafty wordsmiths on the mound with their own styles.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Called up from triple-A Syracuse a day earlier, the 29-year-old Dominican left-hander took the mound to start the bottom of the sixth inning and faced Guardians pinch-hitter Ángel Martínez.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

While Lluagor pounded after him, Taran followed a long gully toward the protection of a high mound.

From "The Black Cauldron" by Lloyd Alexander

As evidence, Karen pulls out a decades-old photo of my newsroom cubicle with its remarkable mounds of documents, folders, newspapers and books on every horizontal surface.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026

Thanks to four years as vice president and two presidential bids, her name identification is universal, and she has demonstrated the ability to raise mounds of money.

From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026

Large chunks of cracked sidewalk form mounds, one after another.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2026

This week's heatwave has left "horrific" mounds of rubbish at some of Wales' most popular beaches, while traffic was brought to a standstill at beauty spots.

From BBC ● May 29, 2026

On termite mounds Nhamo discovered jabvane bushes with purplish black fruit, and in dense thickets near the water grew brambles with dark, sweet berries.

From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer

In the past, they had mounded earth on top of existing graves to create new burial sites, or narrowed existing paths to create more cremation spots.

From New York Times ● Jan. 19, 2024

In addition to identifying forts similar to the walled fortresses Poidebard found, the team identified forts with interior architecture features and ones built around a mounded citadel.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 27, 2023

In the distance, a Boswell crew with earth-movers was building a levee, a rising barrier of mounded dirt.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2023

These kings commanded large armies, drawing legitimacy from their military prowess and creating mounded tombs that required vast resources and labor.

From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023

When the corn was mounded up, the best singer among the slaves, the one with the highest, clearest, truest voice, climbed to the top of the stack and led off the singing.

From "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Ann Petry

Taste and season with salt and pepper, then transfer to a platter, mounding it to one side.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 14, 2023

But radar satellites that measure ocean height can also find them, by looking for subtle signs of seawater mounding above a hidden seamount, tugged by its gravity.

From Science Magazine ● Apr. 18, 2023

Corcoran is protected to the south by a long, mounding levee that stands 188 feet tall.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2023

Both heathers have a mounding habit and grow 2-by-2 feet.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 31, 2022

They gathered the silver to them, mounding it around, piling it high.

From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi