noun
mammoth
MA-muhth
noun
1
An extinct, elephant-like animal covered in shaggy hair, with long curved tusks, that lived during the Ice Age.
"Scientists found a frozen mammoth preserved in the Siberian permafrost."
adjective
1
Extremely large.
"They faced a mammoth task cleaning up after the storm."
"The company posted mammoth profits last quarter."
How to Use Mammoth
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishEither the prehistoric woolly elephant-relative, or, as an adjective, simply "huge."
Common pairings
mammoth task
mammoth effort
woolly mammoth
Word Forms
more mammoth comparative, mammoths plural, most mammoth superlative
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Scientists found a frozen _____ preserved in the Siberian permafrost.
Etymology
From an old Russian word, mámont, probably borrowed from a Uralic word meaning "earth horn."