mound
/maʊnd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.60 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An artificial hill or elevation of earth; a raised bank; an embankment thrown up for defense
noun
A natural elevation appearing as if thrown up artificially; a regular and isolated hill, hillock, or knoll.
Example Sentences
- "The pitcher was waiting at the mound."
- "[…] the men were now also massaging her mounds, their fingers soothing and kneading while they sucked at her aching nipples."
- "a mound of mashed potato"
- "He mounded up his mashed potatoes so they left more space on the plate for the meat."
- "When a wave mounds on the outside and takes its shape, a surfer quickly paddles to the peak, positions himself in its evolving momentum, swings his board around, aligns with the peak, and thrusts himself into its cascading shape."
- "Tonka was created in 1946 by a gardening supply company in Mound, Minnesota called Mound Metalcraft, which later become Tonka Toys Incorporated."
Etymology
From earlier meaning "hedge, fence", from Middle English mound, mund (“protection, boundary, raised earthen rampart”), from Old English mund (“hand, hand of protection, protector, guardianship”), from Proto-West Germanic *mundu, from Proto-Germanic *mundō (“hand”), *munduz (“protection, patron”), from Proto-Indo-European *mh₂-nt-éh₂ (“the beckoning one”), from *(s)meh₂- (“to beckon”). Cognate with Old Frisian mund (“guardianship”), Middle Dutch mond (“protection”), Old High German munt (“hand, protection”) German Mündel (“ward”), Vormund (“guardian”)), Icelandic and Old Norse mund (“hand”), and possibly Latin manus (“hand”), Ancient Greek μάρη (márē, “hand”). Not related to mount.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
- American usage
- Slang
- Obsolete
- Transitive verb
- Intransitive verb
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Frequently Paired Words
batter's box
catcher's box
first base
home base
second base
third base
Mound in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)