mastodons

noun

plural of mastodon
as in whales
something or someone that is unusually large and powerful mom-and-pop stores just can't compete with these mastodons of retailing

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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 mastodons For millions of years, Pacific mastodons — huge, hairy relatives of modern elephants — roamed a vast and lush range that included California, Oregon, the northern Rocky Mountains and parts of Mexico. — Los Angeles Times, 10 Sep. 2026 Modern elephants are the only living proboscideans today — a group that once included woolly mammoths and mastodons. — Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 14 Aug. 2026 According to this theory, those now-extinct megafauna—the giant ground sloths and the giant beavers, the mastodons and mammoths, and even the lions and dire wolves—were relatively quickly hunted to extinction. — Literary Hub, 10 June 2026 Other species recovered from the cave, including mastodons and ground sloths, are rare in the region. — Hanna Wickes, Miami Herald, 29 Mar. 2026 Ground sloths and mastodons are linked to forest habitats. — Hanna Wickes, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 29 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mastodons
  1. whales
  2. dinosaurs
  3. giants
  4. mammoths
  5. monsters
  6. elephants
Noun
  • In February last year, more than 150 whales beached off the coast of Tasmania, Australia – and all of them either died or were euthanized – in the first mass stranding of the animals in Tasmania in 50 years.
    — Amarachi Orie, CNN Money, 6 Nov. 2026
  • Necropsy reports this week specified the causes of death for two beluga whales at Shedd Aquarium after they were rescued from Canada.
    — Adam Harrington, CBS News, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of whales
Noun
  • In the photo, a cake with a gold number 3 could be seen in the center of a table, featuring what appeared to be dinosaurs on it.
    — Madison E. Goldberg, PEOPLE, 6 Nov. 2026
  • Identifying red blood cells in dinosaurs The fossil is a partial hind limb of Aratasaurus museunacionali, a theropod dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous.
    — Taylor Nicioli, CNN Money, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of dinosaurs
Noun
  • Currently, to meet the massive capital requirements of AI infrastructure, American tech giants are expanding financing channels into overseas markets like Europe while extending bond maturities.
    — , CNBC, 6 Nov. 2026
  • The legal action follows successful lawsuits brought against the tech giants by California and others that have resulted in massive civil settlements.
    — Dakota Smith, Los Angeles Times, 5 Nov. 2026
Definition of giants
Noun
  • In ancient California, they are believed to have existed alongside other extinct native species, including bison-sized Jefferson’s ground sloths, Columbian mammoths and western camels.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 10 Sep. 2026
  • See fossils of the 14-foot, 20,000-pound mammoths that used to roam around Texas.
    — Ella Gonzales, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of mammoths
Noun
  • In one of the many scary dream sequences David Naughton has while becoming a werewolf, his Jewish family back home is slaughtered by Nazi monsters.
    — Vulture Editors, Vulture, 30 Oct. 2026
  • Other popular depictions of ghouls conflated them with monsters such as zombies and demons.
    — Harmeet Kaur, CNN Money, 29 Oct. 2026
Definition of monsters
Noun
  • And not my friend Ruth Ganesh, who brought a herd of 100 life-size elephant sculptures made from the Lantana camara weed in Southern India to America to raise awareness for wildlife conservation.
    — Dodie Kazanjian, Vogue, 3 Nov. 2026
  • To make matters worse, Alex screws up again when Kerry, Fraser, and Kaylee leave with the guests for an excursion at the elephant sanctuary.
    — Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of elephants

Browse Nearby Words

mastodon
mastodons
masturbatory
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Mastodons.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mastodons. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of abandon

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Old-Timey Vehicles

The Words of the Week - Nov. 6

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
woman sitting on floor holding book in front of her face on pink background
Famous Novels, Last Lines Quiz Needless to say, spoiler alert.
See All