tepui

American  

[tep-oo-ee, tep-wee] / tɛpˈu i, ˈtɛp wi /

Or tepuy

noun

• tepuis
  plural

1. a mountain with a flat top; a high mesa of a kind seen in the highlands of northeastern South America.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• tepuis
  plural

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Explanation

A tepui is a flat-topped mountain found in South America. Tepuis tower thousands of feet above the surrounding jungle or grasslands. Tepuis are tabletop mountains that formed mainly in Venezuela, with some extending into Brazil and Guyana. They are remnants of an ancient sandstone plateau whose rocks are nearly two billion years old. One of the tallest and best-known tepuis, Mount Roraima, is over 9,000 feet tall. Because the flat summits of tepuis are so isolated, they harbor many plant and animal species found nowhere else. Tepui is from a root meaning "mountain" in the indigenous Pemón language.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tepuis

Like the Galápagos or the tepuis of Venezuela, Mulanje is home to a panoply of endemic species, from the critically endangered Mulanje cedar to the Mulanje tiger moth.

From New York Times ● Nov. 15, 2022

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