mountaineer
Americannoun
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mountaineers
plural
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an inhabitant of a mountainous district.
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a climber of mountains, especially for sport.
verb (used without object)
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mountaineers,
present (3rd person singular)
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mountaineered,
past participle, past
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mountaineering
present participle
noun
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a person who climbs mountains
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a person living in a mountainous area
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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mountaineersimple
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mountaineerssimple
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have mountaineeredperfect
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has mountaineeredperfect
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am mountaineeringprogressive
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are mountaineeringprogressive
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is mountaineeringprogressive
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have been mountaineeringperfect progressive
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has been mountaineeringperfect progressive
Past
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mountaineeredsimple
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had mountaineeredperfect
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was mountaineeringprogressive
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were mountaineeringprogressive
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had been mountaineeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mountaineer
Explanation
A mountaineer is a person who climbs or hikes mountains. If you live in Colorado and spend your weekends scaling peaks in the Rockies, you're a mountaineer. The term mountaineer might seem to imply a serious climber, like Tensing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary, the mountaineers who were the first, in 1953, to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest. You can also use this word, however, for a more casual hiker who does a little rock climbing and mountain hiking. In many European countries, the word alpinist is more common.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The 20-year-old set a new record in 2024 as the youngest mountaineer to summit the world's 14 highest peaks.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
Purja, who served with Britain's Brigade of Gurkhas before joining the Special Boat Squadron of the Royal Marines, broke multiple climbing records since becoming a full-time mountaineer and tour guide.
From Barron's ● Aug. 2, 2026
Purja, who served with Britain's Brigade of Gurkhas before joining the Special Boat Squadron of the Royal Marines, has broken multiple climbing records since becoming a full-time mountaineer and tour guide.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
A mountaineer who nearly died in an avalanche has described how his recovery led him to amateur fossil hunting and the discovery of a marine reptile or "sea dragon" not found in Wales before.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
Early the following morning Edmund Hillary, a rangy New Zealander, and Tenzing Norgay, a highly skilled Sherpa mountaineer, set out for the top breathing bottled oxygen.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
DNA analysis later confirmed them to be those of two mountaineers who went missing 34 years ago near the Weissmies mountain, police said.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Shock and grief have hit members of the alpine climbing community with the President of Nepal's National Mountain Guide Association Tul Singh Gurung saying they had "lost a generation of accomplished mountaineers".
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
The U.S. is pushing an American drone to challenge China in a new race to support mountaineers, setting up an unusual superpower contest in one of the most remote areas of the world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
The climb was one of the last of the season, meaning that there were few other mountaineers on the peak.
From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026
But a number of idealistic mountaineers continued to insist that a gifted athlete blessed with rare physiological attributes could, after a lengthy period of acclimatization, climb the peak without bottled oxygen.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
Their fellow guides say their deaths deal a devastating blow to Nepal's mountaineering community.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
Ayers, the Everest reporter, says Purja helped "publicise a new era of mountaineering" which in many ways helped "democratise mountain-climbing", but also "fuelled commercialisation and risk".
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
It is certainly true that tennis requires discipline and sacrifice, but is this country-club sport really more intense than, say, distance running, mountaineering or solo sailing?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
"This is an unthinkable loss for our mountaineering community and for the nation," Fur Gelje Sherpa, the President of Nepal's mountaineering association posted on social media.
From Barron's ● Aug. 2, 2026
Hombein’s and Unsoeld’s ascent was—and continues to be— deservedly hailed as one of the great feats in the annals of mountaineering.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
