sierra
[see-er-uh]
- a chain of hills or mountains, the peaks of which suggest the teeth of a saw.
- any of several Spanish mackerels of the genus Scomberomorus, especially S. sierra, found in western North America.
- a word used in communications to represent the letter S.
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Origin of sierra
1590–1600; < Spanish: literally, saw < Latin serra
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
ridgeelevationpilepeakbluffcliffsierravolcanopyramidheighteminencealphumpprecipiceglobdriftdomeheapmesastackExamples from the Web for sierra
Contemporary Examples
Father José Julián was shot and wounded driving in a car through the sierra of Ajuchitán.
People on the streets of Havana cheered and celebrated the return of fighters from the Sierra Maestra.
Chernon Bah, co-founder of A World at School, was alarmed by what she witnessed recently in Sierra Leone.
In Liberia, the number is just over 54 percent—Sierra Leone, 67 percent.
And now, Sierra Leoneans will face jail time if caught burying Ebola victims.
Historical Examples
In the meantime the newspapers were read at Sierra Vista, not so much with interest as with anxiety.
White FangJack London
And outside he went, like a king, with all Sierra Vista about him and tending on him.
White FangJack London
Sierra Vista was a far vaster affair than the tepee of Grey Beaver.
White FangJack London
The troops returned to Sierra Leone on the 24th of December.
The History of the First West India RegimentA. B. Ellis
Behind them and off to the right was the gray rampart of the Sierra.
Two Thousand Miles BelowCharles Willard Diffin
sierra
- a range of mountains with jagged peaks, esp in Spain or America
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Word Origin
C17: from Spanish, literally: saw, from Latin serra; see serrate
Sierra
- communications a code word for the letter s
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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 sierra
n.
"a range of hills," 1610s, from Spanish sierra "jagged mountain range," literally "saw," from Latin serra "a saw" (cf. serrated), which is of unknown origin.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
sierra
[sē-ĕr′ə]
- A high, rugged range of mountains having an irregular outline somewhat like the teeth of a saw.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.