butte1
/bjuːt
/noun North American & technical
An isolated hill with steep sides and a flat top (similar to but narrower than a mesa).Located in southeastern Utah, Canyonlands encompasses high mesas and buttes, burnt red sandstone pinnacles and arches, and a myriad of canyons and deep gorges cut by the Green and Colorado Rivers....
- He explained the difference between the mesas and buttes in the distance and challenged us to find images of birds, couples dancing joyfully, and snakes in the sticklike forms of petroglyphs.
- The park shows off some of the most striking landscapes of sandstone buttes, mesas, and spires in the entire Southwest.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from French, 'mound', from Old French but, of unknown origin (compare with butt2).
Rhymes
Butte2
/byo͞ot
/A city in southwestern Montana, noted as a mining center; population 32,119 (est. 2008).