as in whale
something or someone that is unusually large and powerful
mom-and-pop stores just can't compete with these mastodons of retailing
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Recent Examples of mastodon
The frieze, estimated to be about 12,500 years old, depicts massive ice age beasts thought to have once roamed South America, including mastodons and ground sloths the size of a car.
—
Laura Bassett, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Aug. 2025
Guests can take a boat tour to learn more about the area’s history — which stretches back thousands of years to early Native Americans and mastodons — or stay overnight in the Wakulla Springs Lodge, which dates back to 1937.
—Patrick Connolly, The Orlando Sentinel, 1 Aug. 2025
The giant sloths that evolved among ancient grasslands helped to keep those spaces open in tandem with other big herbivores, such as mastodons, as well as the large carnivores that preyed upon them.
—Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 July 2025
Researchers think the wide-open balds were created by grazing animals, first by mastodons and woolly mammoths, and later by deer and elk.
—Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan, Outside Online, 6 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for mastodon
Laura Bassett, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Aug. 2025
Guests can take a boat tour to learn more about the area’s history — which stretches back thousands of years to early Native Americans and mastodons — or stay overnight in the Wakulla Springs Lodge, which dates back to 1937.
—Patrick Connolly, The Orlando Sentinel, 1 Aug. 2025
The giant sloths that evolved among ancient grasslands helped to keep those spaces open in tandem with other big herbivores, such as mastodons, as well as the large carnivores that preyed upon them.
—Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 July 2025
Researchers think the wide-open balds were created by grazing animals, first by mastodons and woolly mammoths, and later by deer and elk.
—Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan, Outside Online, 6 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for mastodon
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mastodon
Noun
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Our days were spent beach combing on semi-secret islands with up-close views of whales, porpoises, and eagles.—
Allison Tibaldi,
USA Today,
18 Apr. 2026
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Since 2015, there have been delays in all but one commercial Dungeness season in the Bay Area, mostly because of whale entanglements.—
Linda Zavoral,
Mercury News,
17 Apr. 2026
Noun
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My father-in-law traveled with us, and my kids enjoyed the day with their grandpa digging for dinosaur bones and learning about electricity and the solar system.—
Linnea Bailey,
Southern Living,
18 Apr. 2026
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Small plastic children’s toys lined at the top of the car — dinosaurs and dump trucks and sharks — creating their own shrunken skyline in front of the Vertigo, signaling that young kids likely lived there.—
Julissa James,
Los Angeles Times,
17 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Take the case of Korean steel giant POSCO, which announced a $12 billion investment in India almost two decades ago.—
Priyanka Salve,
CNBC,
21 Apr. 2026
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And that’s worked to Apple’s advantage as investors have shopped for an alternative to volatile tech giants scrambling to outspend one another on data centers and circular financing deals.—
Allison Morrow,
CNN Money,
21 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The wereboar growled next to Black Pudding, a hulking vicious monster, both focused on ripping Puck and Cordelia to shreds.—
Jaclyn Cosgrove,
Los Angeles Times,
10 Apr. 2026
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Daniel Bernhardt is Deathstalker, a legendary swordsman stuck with a cursed amulet who befriends swamp monsters and teams with a mini wizard (voiced by Patton Oswalt) to stop a dark magic from ruling the land.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
10 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Fossils have also been found that indicate the islands were also once home to pygmy mammoths, which only reached 4 to 6 feet tall.—
Kate Bradshaw,
Mercury News,
23 Mar. 2026
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Surviving Earth explores the world 450M years ago featuring giant sea scorpions, mammoths and sabertooths.—
Peter White,
Deadline,
12 Mar. 2026
Noun
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On the tour with Krueger, Ingrid Barkow watched from her wheelchair as the elephants roamed their habitat, while Monika Jansen balanced on her tiptoes to get a better view of a rhinoceros.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
21 Apr. 2026
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In India, the Queen showed her appreciation for the country by touring the Taj Mahal and riding an elephant.—
Rebecca Mead,
New Yorker,
17 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Mastodon.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mastodon. Accessed 24 Apr. 2026.
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