Word.ws English Dictionary

mammoth

/ˈmæməθ/

mammoth noun: any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus, of large, usually hairy, elephant-like mammals with long curved tusks and an inclined back, which became extinct with the last retreat of ice age glaciers during the late Pleistocene period, and are known from fossils, frozen carcasses, and Paleolithic cave paintings found in North America and Eurasia.

mammoth: any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus, of large, usually hairy, elephant-like mammals with...
Image: Hawkins, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

mammoth (plural mammoths)

  1. Any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus, of large, usually hairy, elephant-like mammals with long curved tusks and an inclined back, which became extinct with the last retreat of ice age glaciers during the late Pleistocene period, and are known from fossils, frozen carcasses, and Paleolithic cave paintings found in North America and Eurasia.
    • Maimanto, as they say a sea elephant which is never seene, but accordinge to the Samuites he workes himselfe under grownde and so they finde his teeth or homes or bones in Pechore and Nova Zemla of which they […]1618, Richard James, “The Implications of James's Maimanto”, in Robert Auty, I. P. Foote, editors, Oxford Slavonic Papers. New Series., volume 9, Clarendon Press, published 1976, Dictionariolum...
    • The Mammotovoy, which is dug out of the Earth in Siberia.1698, Heinrich Wilhelm Ludolf, edited by Sir James Augustus Henry Murray, Sir William Alexander Craigie, and Charles Talbut Onions, A New English dictionary on historical principles: founded mainly...
  2. (obsolete) A mastodon.
    • Many of our readers will remember the skeleton of the American mammoth, now the Mastodonton, being exhibited in London by Mr. Rembrandt Peale.1812, Samuel Fothergill, William Royston, “Half-yearly View of the Progress of Medicine”, in The Medical and Physical Journal, volume 27, London: Richard Phillips, page 24
  3. (figuratively) Something very large of its kind.
    • The last load, as we Yankees say, was a "Mammoth": […] producing an aggregate of nearly twelve cords.1802, Richard Hopwood Thornton, edited by Louise Wardell Hanley, An American Glossary: Being an Attempt to Illustrate Certain Americanisms Upon Historical Principles, volume 2, Philadelphia: J. B....
    • That is a lot of ship, about the size of big tankers before they grew so rapidly to become supers, mammoths and oilbergs.1973, Jeffrey Potter, Disaster by Oil, page 46
  4. A kind of large donkey.
    • Mammoths are taller than 54 inches. Each can carry up to 25% of its weight in combined tack, supplies, and rider.2023, C. B. Chastain, Concise Textbook of Large Animal Handling: A Practical Handbook, pages 4-60

Adjective

mammoth (comparative more mammoth, superlative most mammoth)

  1. Comparable to a mammoth in its size; very large, huge, gigantic.
    • I recieved [sic] from the persons to whom the inclosed is directed, a present of a quarter of a Mammoth-veal which at 115. days old weighed 438. lb.1801, Thomas Jefferson, edited by Julian Parks Boyd, The papers of Thomas Jefferson: 1 August to 30 November 1801, volume 35, Princeton University Press, published 2009, →ISBN, page 479
    • A baker in this city offers Mammoth bread for sale. We suppose that his gigantic loaves were baked at a Salt Lick, and perhaps […]1802, Richard Hopwood Thornton, edited by Louise Wardell Hanley, An American Glossary: Being an Attempt to Illustrate Certain Americanisms Upon Historical Principles, volume 2, Philadelphia: J. B....

mammoth meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

mammoth in Hindi

elephant-like mammal
मैमथ maimath

mammoth in Tamil

ஆகப்பெரிய

mammoth in Marathi

मॅमॉथ, मॅमॅथ, ममथ

mammoth in Urdu

elephant-like mammal
جسام jusām, میمتھ maimath
More languagesFewer languages
mammoth in Bengali
ম্যামথ mêmoth
mammoth in Telugu
మముత్
mammoth in Malayalam
നാമാവശേഷമായ ഒരുതരം ആന
mammoth in Kannada
ರೋಮಯುಕ್ತ ಆನೆ, ಬೃಹದ್ಗಜ, ಮಹಾಗಜ, ಭಾರಿ
mammoth in Punjabi
ਮੈਮੈਥ, ਮੈਮਥ
mammoth in Gujarati
મેમથ, મામોથ, મમથ
mammoth in Odia
ମାମୋଥ୍, ମାମୋତ୍, ମାମ୍ମଥ
mammoth in Assamese
মেমথ memoth
mammoth in Nepali
मामोथ, म्यामथ
mammoth in Pashto
ماموت
mammoth in Arabic
مَامُوث māmūṯ
mammoth in Malay
mamot
mammoth in Persian
ماموت mâmut
mammoth in Thai
แมมมอธ mɛm-mɔ́ɔt
mammoth in Vietnamese
voi ma mút, ma mút

Examples of mammoth in a sentence

  • “Ha! ha!” he proudly cried, “a fig / For this, your mammoth torso! / Just watch me while I grow as big / As you—or even more so!”1898, Guy Wetmore Carryl, “The Arrogant Frog and the Superior Bull”, in Fables for the Frivolous (With Apologies to La Fontaine):
  • “[…] The task is mammoth but not hopeless and slowly we keep things going until this transition period is past.”1999, Albert Isaac Slomovitz, The Fighting Rabbis: Jewish Military Chaplains and American History, New York University Press, page 103:
  • The governor of the region said that all of the 13 missing were safe after a mammoth search and rescue operation.2018 July 2, Samuel Osborne, “Thai cave search: All 12 boys and football coach found alive after nine days missing, governor says”, in...

All 26 example sentences with mammoth

Synonyms of mammoth

All synonyms of mammoth

Forms of mammoth

Noun
pluralmammoths
Adjective
comparativemore mammoth
superlativemost mammoth

Plural of mammoth: mammoths

Origin of mammoth

From obsolete Russian ма́мант (mámant), modern ма́монт (mámont), probably from a Uralic word, such as Proto-Mansi *mān-oŋt (“earth horn”). Possibly influenced by behemoth. Adjectival use was popularized in the early 1800s by references to the Cheshire Mammoth Cheese presented to American paleontologist and president Thomas Jefferson.

Words formed from mammoth

Phrases with mammoth

Questions about mammoth

What does mammoth mean?
Mammoth means any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus, of large, usually hairy, elephant-like mammals with long curved tusks and an inclined back, which became extinct with the last retreat of ice age glaciers during the late Pleistocene period, and are known from fossils, frozen carcasses, and Paleolithic cave paintings found in North America and Eurasia.
What is mammoth in Hindi?
Mammoth in Hindi is मैमथ (maimath). See Mammoth meaning in Hindi.
How do you use mammoth in a sentence?
“Ha! ha!” he proudly cried, “a fig / For this, your mammoth torso! / Just watch me while I grow as big / As you—or even more so!”
What part of speech is mammoth?
Mammoth can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce mammoth?
Mammoth is pronounced /ˈmæməθ/.
What is the plural of mammoth?
The plural of mammoth is mammoths.

Words near mammoth in the dictionary

  1. mammosomatotrophs
  2. mammosonography
  3. mammosphere
  4. mammospheres
  5. mammospheric
  6. mammoth
  7. Mammoth Lakes
  8. Mammoth Mountain
  9. mammoth steppe
  10. mammoth steppes
  11. mammothite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mammoth (page history and authors); mammoth (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mammoth (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mammoth (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mammoth (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mammoth (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mammoth (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mammoth (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mammoth (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mammoth (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mammoth.wav.

Cite this entry: “mammoth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mammoth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.