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

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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
  • While responding to the incident, crews observed three whales in the area off Fire Island National Seashore.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 8 Oct. 2026
  • The Mokattam Formation in northern Egypt is a thick layer of limestone that has preserved prehistoric marine fossils, including fish, sharks and early whales.
    — Taylor Nicioli, CNN Money, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of whales
Noun
  • About 66 million years ago, the Chicxulub asteroid smashed into Earth, kicking up tsunamis and dropping hot debris that annihilated non-avian dinosaurs and many other species.
    — Elizabeth Rayne, ArsTechnica, 30 Sep. 2026
  • Its discovery adds to our understanding of one of the world’s premier fossil deposits and what life in Illinois looked like even before dinosaurs.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of dinosaurs
Noun
  • This latest group of founders stands on the shoulders of giants from the noughties like Spotify, Klarna, and Skype, who themselves took inspiration from the postwar design empires of IKEA, H&M and Tetra Pak (modernizer of the milk carton).
    — Jan Larsson, Fortune, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Google on Thursday unveiled a new AI agent tailored for workplace tasks, positioning it to compete with other technology giants racing to offer their own virtual office assistants.
    — Mary Cunningham, CBS News, 8 Oct. 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
  • The main three projects — The Mummy, The Loudest Voice and Unabomber — each involve monsters in various forms.
    — Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 3 Oct. 2026
  • The world has seen many hurricanes rapidly intensify in recent years, strengthening from relatively weak storms into destructive monsters in a matter of hours.
    — Chanh Kieu, Washington Post, 2 Oct. 2026
Definition of monsters
Noun
  • This wildly luxurious hideaway coexists with nature to put you up-close with the Big Five—especially the elephants, lion, and rhino that roam this northwest corner of South Africa.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 6 Oct. 2026
  • Acehnese conservationist Farwiza Farhan has spent years fighting to protect Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem—perhaps the last place on Earth where elephants, tigers, rhinos and orangutans still coexist in the wild.
    — Ashleigh Nghiem, Fortune, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of elephants

Browse Nearby Words

mastodon
mastodons
masturbatory
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Cite this Entry

“Mastodons.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mastodons. Accessed 11 Oct. 2026.

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