Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of altiplanoBuilt in the late 19 th century to transport the altiplano’s abundant metals and minerals, the railway line once ran from Bolivia’s de facto capital La Paz to the Pacific port of Antofagasta in Chile.—The Editors, Outside, 31 Aug. 2025 Tiwanaku communities first emerged in an altiplano, or high plain, of the Andes called the Titicaca Basin, named after Lake Titicaca.—Gina Park, CNN Money, 19 Aug. 2025 The landscape changed around me; condensing from plains, desert, and mountains into the jungles of Central America, then unfolding in reverse, into the expanse of the altiplano.—J.r. Patterson, Condé Nast Traveler, 1 Feb. 2022 The world's largest salt flat covers 4,000 square miles of Bolivian altiplano.—Anne Olivia Bauso, Travel + Leisure, 8 Dec. 2021 In the Chilean altiplano above 12,000 feet, Meiburg spends one of the coldest nights of his life in a sleeping bag on the edge of a salt lagoon, staking out mountain caracaras known for working in groups to flip over heavy flat stones in search of edible creatures.—Paul Kvinta, Outside Online, 2 Apr. 2021 The terminal at El Alto International Airport may not have the best design or the most punctilious construction standards, but in the freezing predawn of this high plateau—the Andean altiplano—one could weep with gratitude that it is heated.—Alma Guillermoprieto, The New York Review of Books, 3 Dec. 2020 Which is why Steve Ruff, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University and a key player in the Home Plate analysis, traveled thousands of miles to El Tatio, a series of hot springs in the rare air of Chile’s altiplano.—Jeffrey Marlow, Discover Magazine, 28 Nov. 2016
This musician from Ambato, Ecuador, tropicalized the national music of the Ecuadorian highlands, which had long been stigmatized for its Indigenous roots and the sad melodies often associated with them.
—
NPR,
NPR,
13 Oct. 2025
Don Churros Gomez traces its lineage back to Yahualica, Jalisco, a region in Mexico’s highlands known for its rich soil and incredible produce, according to Nuñes-Gomez.
Within minutes, guests can be standing beneath the stone arches of Arches National Park, 4 miles away, or surveying mesas and buttes in Canyonlands National Park, 30 miles southwest, where the Colorado and Green rivers have carved the landscape for centuries.
—
Cari Shane,
USA Today,
15 Oct. 2025
Instead, tribal members have relied on a single power line that runs roughly 30 miles east and west across high desert punctuated by three distinctive mesas, home to 12 distinct villages, including some of the oldest inhabited communities in the United States.
The tableland was formed by volcanic eruptions about 700,000 years ago, according to the Bishop Chamber of Commerce and Information Center.
—
Don Sweeney,
Sacramento Bee,
11 Mar. 2025
It's located on the Cumberland Plateau — a 450-mile tableland that covers much of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, with soaring sandstone walls, large boulders, and dramatic overhangs.
Share