mother lode

noun

Definition of mother lode

1 : the principal vein or lode of a region

2 : a principal source or supply

Examples of mother lode in a Sentence

the university has long been a mother lode of athletic talent, with many alumni joining the rarefied ranks of the professionals

Recent Examples on the Web

In the storm’s wake, the mother lode of numbing cold will crash south — likely to be the last but most bitter in brutal blasts since Christmas Eve in the Northeast. — Jason Samenow, Washington Post, "‘Bomb cyclone’ blasting East Coast before polar vortex uncorks tremendous cold late this week," 3 Jan. 2018 Soviet geologists discovered a diamond mother lode deep in the Siberian wilderness, and the company was founded soon after, in 1957. — Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times, "A Diamond Giant Plays Up Its Russian Ties to Appeal to Americans," 11 July 2018 This mother lode of findings comes after a six-year delving into genomes representing more than a million people, a quest for unusual genetic signals that track with one or more of 42 disorders and traits. — Emily Willingham, Scientific American, "Analysis of a Million-Plus Genomes Points to Blurring Lines Among Brain Disorders," 22 June 2018 The mother lode instead came two days later, on Friday, October 7, when WikiLeaks posted its first batch of John Podesta’s emails. — Andrew Prokop, Vox, "The hacked emails at the center of Mueller’s Russia investigation, explained," 2 Apr. 2018 And the collection is still a meiofauna mother lode for contemporary researchers. — Adrienne Mason, Smithsonian, "King of The Mud Dragons," 2 Mar. 2018 Comstock boosts asking price for land near Nevada airport Area east of Reno has been booming thanks to Silicon Valley Long-struggling Comstock Mining Inc. may finally have its mother lode. — Bloomberg.com, "Trump: Will Be Putting in a Lot More Circuit Judges," 23 Feb. 2018 And the only other cities in 2017 to remotely rival Houston’s mother lode of super-high-end athletic prowess would be those who also have NHL teams in the mix. — Dale Robertson, San Antonio Express-News, "Houston leads country in star power," 5 Jan. 2018 At Park N Shop on Wilkinson, usually a Jane Parker mother lode, the display was bare. — Kathleen Purvis, charlotteobserver, "What’s so great about Jane Parker? | Charlotte Observer," 26 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'mother lode.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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More Definitions for mother lode

mother lode

noun

English Language Learners Definition of mother lode

: the place where the largest amount of gold, silver, etc., in a particular area can be found

See the full definition for mother lode in the English Language Learners Dictionary

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