- present participle of mountaineer.
mountaineering
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of mountaineering
First recorded in 1795–1805; mountaineer + -ing 1
Explanation
Mountaineering is another word for the sport of mountain climbing. If high altitudes and low temperatures are your thing, you should take up mountaineering. Climbing in snowy and ice-covered places requires special equipment and extreme care, watching out for dangers like falling ice and rocks, storms, and avalanches. In some parts of the world, mountaineering is called "alpinism." Originally, the noun mountaineer was a seventeenth century word for "mountain dweller." Two hundred years later, it came to mean "mountain climber."
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.
In Nepal, she traveled to Everest Base Camp to write a dispatch for the Christian Science Monitor on the country's attempts to more closely regulate the mountaineering industry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Betws-y-Coed businessman Andy Jones, who owns outdoor mountaineering firm Seren Ventures, said the overnight parking ban risked driving tourists away.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
"This is another milestone in Nepal's mountaineering history," Himal Gautam, spokesperson for Nepal's Tourism Department, told AFP.
From Barron's ● May 17, 2026
Members of the co-op mainly bought mountaineering equipment imported from Europe.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
It looked like you would have needed mountaineering equipment to climb it.
From "The London Eye Mystery" by Siobhan Dowd
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.
