Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A high ridge of land or rock jutting out into a body of water; a headland.
- n. Anatomy A projecting part.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A high point of land or rock projecting into the sea beyond the line of coast; a headland.
- n. In anatomy, a prominent or protuberant part; a prominence, eminence, or protuberance. Of the sacrum, the bold salient angle between the first sacral and last lumbar vertebra, bounding the brim of the true pelvis posteriorly, and especially pronounced in man.
- Resembling a promontory; high; projecting.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Phys. Geog.) A high point of land or rock projecting into the sea beyond the line of coast; a headland; a high cape.
- n. (Anat.) A projecting part. Especially: (a) The projecting angle of the ventral side of the sacrum where it joins the last lumbar vertebra. (b) A prominence on the inner wall of the tympanum of the ear.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a natural elevation (especially a rocky one that juts out into the sea)
Etymologies
- From Latin promontorium, which is said to be derived from either mons ("mountain") or munctor ("nose"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin prōmontorium, alteration (influenced by mōns, mont-, mount) of prōmunturium, probably from prominēre, to jut out; see prominent. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Just over the promontory is an isthmus with a small sheltered beach semi-enclosed by two rocky arms.”
“Though fishermen and picnickers sometimes appear in the afternoons or evenings, the lakefront on both sides of the promontory is pristine and undeveloped.”
“Carmel -- the mountain promontory north of Israel, in Asher, abounding in rich pastures, olives, and vines.”
“He had just become aware of the first dusky breath of the twilight, when a tiny sloop appeared, rounding the Deid Heid, as they called the promontory which closed in the bay on the east.”
“The plants on the promontory are also changing with the season.”
“At the tip of the promontory is the Dungeness nuclear power station.”
The Guardian: Dungeness's strange beauty under threat from shingle plan
“Below the promontory was a level area, perfect for a trading settlement.”
“Libya which is called the promontory of Soloeis, he sailed on towards the South.”
“The promontory was a vast, high meadow flanked by jutting cliffs and broken steeps that narrowed, closing in as the elevation rose toward the level crest that was a jutting shoulder of great Cioudseeker, which stood in the distance behind like a gigantic, three-horned head draped in a sloping cowl.”
“Spread out around our promontory is a deep jagged valley plunging away from us on three sides, softening in its contours at its lower levels.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘promontory’.
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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...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 505 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 491 more...
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Stalking Darkness
Words and phrases from Lynn Flewelling's book, Stalking Darkness.
inquest, halyard, catamount, occlude, founder, more, grouse, grapple, water butt, antepenultimate, palimpsest, hob and 196 more...
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Chennessy's Words
philistine, messianic, dyad, cult, bourgeois, blot, ploy, polyglot, lingua franca, cumbersome, lumber, petit-bourgeois and 446 more...
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(more or less) Temporary Urth List
Temporary list is temporary.
Collecting a few words here, which are then to be alloted to other lists.vassal, gnaw, putrescence, liege, pederasty, disseminate, loot, waning, fitful, hiatuse, plow, pious and 292 more...
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tree's Words
aphasia, anhedonia, promontory, misandry, amanuensis, asymptote, penultimate, muslin, tundra, calico, kinaesthesia, rutabaga and 209 more...
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billy shakespeare's guide to good living
hurlyburly, nave, direful, whence, sooth, dwindle, tempest-tost, withal, selfsame, wrack, unfix, recompense and 142 more...
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the earth
Planetary chaos: terrain, landscape and geology excluding rocks. (See "the geologist" list for the latter.)
butte, karst, caldera, mesa, laccolith, cwm, crater, alp, precipice, sierra, badlands, prairie and 122 more...
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Airborn
Words and phrases from Kenneth Oppel's book, Airborn.
running lights, starboard, bow, gondola, bullhorn, rudder man, gas cell, keel, catwalk, stern, cargo bay, machinist and 152 more...
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Words that delight me
tepid, perfunctory, trope, benign, inordinate, bewildering, ersatz, boon, delectable, apt, scuttlebutt, sequester and 398 more...
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ulyssean
... as in "by James Joyce"
stately, plump, aloft, gurgling, untonsured, chrysostomos, jowl, parapet, jesuit, indigestion, scutter, noserag and 688 more...
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miltonic
liberty, froth-becurlèd, host, huge-bellied, aghast, rills, gladsom, wrathfull, ordain, thunder-clasping, ruddy, warble and 264 more...
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The Innocents Abroad
Words rounded up while reading The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.
rakish, excursionist, bowelless, pilgrimizing, melodeon, woebegone, abaft, sextant, veriest, behindhand, stanchion, avast and 188 more...
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