Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An area of land formed or lying at the foot of a mountain or mountain range.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or constituting such an area of land.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any region of foothills of a mountain range.
  • adjective Formed or lying at the foot of a mountain range.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[After Piedmont.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Piedmont, ultimately from Italian piémonte ("foot of a mountain"); cognate with French piémont.

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Examples

  • The sharp relief of the mountains, with their grass-covered summits, precipitous slopes and flat open piedmont, is formed by a ridge of iron-quartzite emerging from softer metamorphic rocks.

    Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire 2008

  • The inspiration came from having carne crudo (and nebbiolo) that is so ubiquitous in piedmont.

    Sushi: an impossible food-wine pairing? | Dr Vino's wine blog 2009

  • At the base of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains, shallow soils derived from sedimentary rocks support a particular community known as piedmont scrub.

    Tamaulipan matorral 2007

  • During the 18th and 19th centuries, in the middle Atlantic and particularly in the Southern states, there was a long-standing cleavage between the coastal and 'piedmont' regions on the one hand and the upcountry areas to the west on the other.

    The challenge for Obama is not the white working class but Appalachia Stephen Retherford 2008

  • During the 18th and 19th centuries, in the middle Atlantic and particularly in the Southern states, there was a long-standing cleavage between the coastal and 'piedmont' regions on the one hand and the upcountry areas to the west on the other.

    Archive 2008-05-01 Stephen Retherford 2008

  • Looks like the second ruts is kicking in around my home in the lower piedmont now.

    Weekly Rut Report 2009

  • Looks like the second ruts is kicking in around my home in the lower piedmont now.

    Weekly Rut Report 2009

  • What I mean is that North Carolina, as every schoolchild knows, has three distinct regions: coastal plain, piedmont, and mountains.

    Op Ed in Durham Herald 2008

  • What I mean is that North Carolina, as every schoolchild knows, has three distinct regions: coastal plain, piedmont, and mountains.

    Archive 2008-09-01 2008

  • Her novels cover a great deal of territory, from the mills of the piedmont to the Donner Party and the Nevada desert to children suffering with chronic illness -- she contains multitudes.

    An Amazon.com Books Blog featuring news, reviews, interviews and guest author blogs. 2008

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