as in mountain
a type of hill with a flat top and steep sides that is found in the southwestern U.S.
The otherworldly sandstone buttes of Monument Valley, Arizona are well worth a visit.
Related Words
Relevance
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
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 butte
As Arizona yielded to New Mexico, the dirt seemed to get redder and the ridges rose to form buttes.
—
Tribune News Service, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Mar. 2026
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
In Arizona's high country, the leaves could soon match the color of some of the buttes.
—Michael Salerno, AZCentral.com, 9 Oct. 2025
Courses are high-quality desert golf with lots of elevation changes, exposed rocks, and a few dramatic signature holes, most famously the third on the Mountain course, a short par-three with a tee on a cliff and the green atop a rocky butte.
—Larry Olmsted, Forbes.com, 19 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for butte
Tribune News Service, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Mar. 2026
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
In Arizona's high country, the leaves could soon match the color of some of the buttes.
—Michael Salerno, AZCentral.com, 9 Oct. 2025
Courses are high-quality desert golf with lots of elevation changes, exposed rocks, and a few dramatic signature holes, most famously the third on the Mountain course, a short par-three with a tee on a cliff and the green atop a rocky butte.
—Larry Olmsted, Forbes.com, 19 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for butte
Recent Examples of Synonyms for butte
Noun
-
Tree planting remained an important component, but the vision became broader, with more focus on cultivating arid, degraded land - like the mountains around Kourtimale or the Ferlo valley.—
Julie Bourdin,
NPR,
11 Apr. 2026
-
Then commandos used mini-helicopters to reach the mountains, extract the weapons officer, and fly him back to the airfield.—
The Week UK,
TheWeek,
11 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Hotel accommodations were so saturated that travelers without lodging were seen sleeping in a park in the small western Cuban town of Viñales that draws thousands of tourists and rock climbers to its scenic limestone cliffs.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
18 Apr. 2026
-
Located to the west of Normandy, this understated roughly 25-mile stretch of shoreline runs from the oyster-famous town of Cancale to the dramatic cliffs of Cap Fréhel, encompassing the fortified city of Saint-Malo and quaint seaside villages like Saint-Lunaire—our base for the next several days.—
Maddy Odom,
Travel + Leisure,
18 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Take in jaw-dropping views of the Painted Desert, a colorful expanse of hills, buttes, and mesas.—
Lydia Mansel,
Travel + Leisure,
4 Apr. 2026
-
Enter a ravine and follow gradual switchbacks to a small mesa at the top.—
Madison Chapman,
Outside,
25 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Similarly, crew members also took field trips to such locations as the Kamestastin Impact Crater in Labrador, Canada and the Icelandic highlands.—
Leonard David,
Space.com,
6 Apr. 2026
-
Armed with lessons learned from a painful past, women put up a quiet but resilient fight to preserve the dignity of their lives and home in the breathtaking Montenegrin highlands.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
1 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
The play subverts itself, never allowing an audience to gain a commanding foothill, even at the end when (suffice it to say) the watchers become the watched.—
Theater Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
25 Mar. 2026
-
Cucumbers were first cultivated in the Himalayan foothills of the Indian peninsula over 3000 years ago.—
Andrés Muedano,
JSTOR Daily,
25 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
This was a small decline of 10,000 on the prior week but in British ratings terms is effectively a plateau and will likely lead to a sigh of relief among the SNL UK creative team and executives at Sky.—
Max Goldbart,
Deadline,
13 Apr. 2026
-
Tuesday night is also David Pastrnak’s final chance at cracking the 100-point plateau for the fourth consecutive season.—
Julian McKenzie,
New York Times,
13 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Butte.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/butte. Accessed 25 Apr. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
