MAMMOTH - Definition & Meaning for Kids

Simple definitions and word synonyms for kids.

Part of speech: Noun

any of numerous extinct elephants widely distributed in the Pleistocene; extremely large with hairy coats and long upcurved tusks

Categories: Elephant

• the word 'mammoth' coming to be used to mean 'something really silly big' is partly down to Thomas Jefferson. He was keenly interested in palaeontology, and used the word to describe a bigass wheel of cheese.

The word "mammoth" was borrowed from Russian ма́мант. Many other languages have similar words:

English spelling is irregular because it preserves pronunciations from multiple historical periods simultaneously.