Word
butte
US/ˈbjut/
UK/bˈʌt/
Definition
n. a tall, flat-topped hill with very steep sides. You usually see these in dry, desert-like areas.
n. an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top. It is smaller than a mesa but formed by similar erosional processes in arid regions.
Examples
“The lone butte stands tall against the desert sky.”
“As we drove through the valley, we saw a massive red butte rising sharply from the flat ground.”
“The geological survey identified the butte as a remnant of a much larger plateau that had been worn away by millions of years of wind and water erosion.”
Examples
simple
“The lone butte stands tall against the desert sky.”
contextual
“As we drove through the valley, we saw a massive red butte rising sharply from the flat ground.”
complex
“The geological survey identified the butte as a remnant of a much larger plateau that had been worn away by millions of years of wind and water erosion.”
Usage
Commonly used in the context of North American geography, particularly in the Western United States.
Real-World Examples
“The honeycomb patterns, each only a few inches wide, stretch across the landscape and even wrap around a nearby 20-foot-tall butte.” Etymology
Perhaps a variant spelling of Butt.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/butte