Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various large, hairy, extinct elephants of the genus Mammuthus, especially the woolly mammoth.
- n. Something of great size.
- adj. Of enormous size; huge. See Synonyms at enormous.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An extinct species of elephant, Elephas primigenius. It is nearly related to the existing Indian elephant, having teeth of similar pattern, and is believed to have been the ancestor of this species; but it was thickly covered with a shaggy coat of three kinds, long stiff bristles and long flexible hairs being mixed with a kind of wool. This warm covering enabled it to endure the rigor of winter in its native regions. The tusks were of great size and much curved. An entire mammoth was discovered in 1799 by a Tungusian fisherman named Schumachoff, embedded in the ice on the banks of the river Lena in Siberia, in such complete preservation that its flesh was eaten by dogs, wolves, and bears. It was about 9 feet high and 16 feet long, with tusks 9 feet long measured along the curve. In later years the bones and tusks of the mammoth have been found abundantly in Siberia, and the fossil ivory has been of great commercial value. This article had been known for many centuries before the discovery of the animal itself, and the mammoth is now supposed to have ranged, before, during, and after the glacial epoch, over the greater part of the northern hemisphere. That it was contemporary with prehistoric man is shown by the discovery of a drawing of the animal scratched on a piece of its own ivory found in a cave in France. This species is more expressly known as the hairy mammoth. The name mammoth is extended to other fossil elephants of the same genus or of the subfamily Elephantinœ, but is not applicable to the mastodons, of the subfamily Mastodontinœ.
- Of great comparative size, like a mammoth; gigantic; colossal; immense: as, a mammoth ox; the mammoth tree of California (Sequoia gigantea).
Wiktionary
- n. A large, hairy, extinct elephant-like mammal of the taxonomic genus Mammuthus.
- n. figuratively Something very large of its kind.
- adj. Very large.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) An extinct, hairy, maned elephant (Mammuthus primigenius formerly Elephas primigenius), of enormous size, remains of which are found in the northern parts of both continents. The last of the race, in Europe, were coeval with prehistoric man.
- adj. Resembling the mammoth in size; very large; gigantic.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. so exceedingly large or extensive as to suggest a giant or mammoth
- n. any of numerous extinct elephants widely distributed in the Pleistocene; extremely large with hairy coats and long upcurved tusks
Etymologies
- From obsolete Russian мамант (modern мамонт), probably from Old Vogul *mēmoŋt ‘earth-horn’ (compare Mansi mā ‘earth’, ou̯tə ‘horn’). (Wiktionary)
- Obsolete Russian mamut, mamot. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“And suddenly the term mammoth, no longer just referring to an animal, meant anything big.”
“We hunted large game; a mammoth is a risky proposition.”
The Washington Post: Evolutionary psychology explores ancient and newer roots of instinctual fears
“They were his picture books, and he could take one in hand, perhaps a sketch of the great hairy elephant which we call the mammoth, and show it around the circle and then tell the story of that hunt.”
The Iron Star — and what It saw on Its Journey through the Ages
“The name mammoth, which is probably of Tartar origin, Witsen appears to wish to derive from Behemoth, spoken of in the fortieth chapter of the Book of Job.”
The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II
“The woolly mammoth is the ideal choice for the “new” republican party.”
Unemployment still at 10%. [pause] Yipe. - Moe_Lane’s blog - RedState
“We have the oldest model that he has in his collection, a woolly mammoth from the '40s, when he was just doing it in a shop in his garage," she says.”
“All that stands between the world and a living, breathing wooly mammoth is $10M.”
“Link many people assume the hairy mammoth is extinct, but there could be one out behind your garage.”
“He was the KEWLEST. also: the word mammoth always makes me snicker.”
“And it was -- now I got the name mammoth through a curious process.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘mammoth’.
-
1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
-
BIG Words
Awesome words that just mean "BIG"
gargantuan, massive, behemoth, colossal, mammoth, monumental, leviathan, immense, enormous, elephantine, astronomical, whopping and 18 more...
-
Animals
pig, camel, ant, ape, donkey, badger, bat, beaver, bee, cat, dog, cow and 82 more...
-
List 2(starting at 260)
mammoth, overt, valor, aspire, relegate, bias, incisive, scurry, precipitate, singular, inveigh, repulse and 48 more...
-
GRE 1100
drudgery, implore, hapless, nuance, wrest, incipient, inadvertent, tremulous, bristle, euphemism, disdain, pugnacious and 346 more...
-
Words for Big
Words, terms and phrases that denote big, bigness, or making something bigger.
enlarge, giant, giantess, biggify, enormous, enhance, augment, whopper, swell, swollen, inflated, gigantic and 54 more...
-
Shadowkeir's list
This list, the one shown below this very message, is a collection of words that you cannot begin to fathom how much I adore. The list will also feature atithesis and contrasting words such as the t...
wishful, anticlimactic, forte, monchromatic, septic, wonderous, isoclinal, deformed, disintergrate, favourite, laughable, awe-inspiring and 250 more...
-
1100 words you need to know
GRE words
voracious, indiscriminate, replete, steeped, eminent, perceive, intrepid, compound, automaton, reticent, interminable, drudgery and 288 more...
-
mariposa417's Words
cerulean, jewel, malfeasance, precipice, crossroads, beautiful, adore, sublime, superfluous, poppy, monarch, lashes and 101 more...
-
Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 997 more...
-
NakedFringe's Words
masticate, chamber, orchid, mandolin, yellow, pomegranate, conundrum, paradox, gyrate, calamitous, opalescent, cacophony and 533 more...
-
Landscape
riparian, littoral, talus, fen, ambit, savanna, remnant prairie, shortgrass prairie, tallgrass prairie, marsh, swamp, marshy and 199 more...
-
my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
-
kingrat47's Words
procrustean, devolution, cacophony, hippopotamus, crunch, beware, chortled, sibilant, subtle, undermine, acromegaly, acropolis and 645 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for mammoth.

qroqqa Also used as a modifier, meaning "very big". As in a sentence I just read in seriously intended copy, referring to a firm as a mammoth boutique. The richness of the Web is illustrated by the fact that several of those randomized spam sites, whatever they are (I have no intention of clicking) contain this very phrase in most curious contexts:
society enrichmentm eeting invitations after applicant of the phony ugly fire succumbing inside me, soothing into the mammoth boutique between my legs.
by roundness up an corridoro with the latest fashions, discontinuation and accessories, all within a mammoth boutique. Read out ringworm genre remedies. Mar 9, 2009