sierra
noun
a chain of hills or mountains, the peaks of which suggest the teeth of a saw.
sierra
American
[see-er-uh]
/ siˈɛr ə /
noun
-
sierras
plural
-
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.
Sierra
1
British
/ sɪˈɛərə /
noun
sierra
2
British
/ sɪˈɛərə /
noun
sierra
Scientific
/ sē-ĕr′ə /
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of sierra
1590–1600; < Spanish: literally, saw < Latin serra
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:
In this recipe, which is adapted from “The Food of Oaxaca,” chef and author Alejandro Ruiz recommends sierra or mahi-mahi, which are caught off the coast of Puerto Escondido in Oaxaca.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 26, 2021
The sierra and Gran Parque Natural Topes de Collantes, where you’ll find the Caburní waterfall, are a popular day trip from Trinidad, though most people head to Parque el Cubano, which borders Trinidad.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 24, 2018
Numb to greatness, a humdrum appreciation comes with his sierra of staggering statistics.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2018
But to do so we would have to traverse another sierra, Bahoruco, on a remote road whose condition Amadeo’s contact hadn’t gotten back to him about.
From New York Times ● Nov. 28, 2014
On two occasions in the Castiles has our advent to some hamlet of the sierra been hailed with joy as that of a strolling company of acrobats!
From Wild Spain (Espa?a agreste) Records of Sport with Rifle, Rod, and Gun, Natural History Exploration by Walter J. Buck
Thanks to its high-profile transfers, Sierra Canyon could be the team to beat in the San Fernando Valley.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026
Peter Bai James, a health worker who served on the front lines in Sierra Leone during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak, calls it an epidemiological paradox.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Sierra, which builds customer-service AI agents, is largely credited for pioneering the outcome-based pricing model.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 1, 2026
Two devastating wildfires that swept through California's Sierra Nevada in 2020 and 2021 killed thousands of giant sequoias.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026
She doesn’t want us to go to the mountains of the Sierra Maestra or the Escambray.
From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar
The story of Maoism’s travels takes in the tea plantations of north India, the sierras of the Andes, Paris’s 5th arrondissement, the fields of Tanzania, rice paddies in Cambodia and terraces in Brixton.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 16, 2019
Our water comes from Hetch Hetchy in the sierras.
From New York Times ● Dec. 29, 2017
When the sierras received more precipitation and were frequently snow covered, this animal is believed to have occurred in the soil on the surface.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 31, 2017
He’ll be remembered as much if not more as a tragic caudillo, a reminder that revolutionaries are usually a lot less romantic when they come down from the sierras and govern.
From Time ● Nov. 26, 2016
The train clicked by the Union Stock Yards, doubly pungent in the day’s strange warmth, and skirted sierras of black coal capped with grimy melting snow.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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.
