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.
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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
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An hour north of New York City, the Hudson Valley has turned into one of the country’s most compelling beer regions with farms, river towns, mountain backdrops, and a concentration of serious breweries that keeps growing.—
Jim Dobson,
Forbes.com,
16 May 2026
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Strong to severe thunderstorms are possible Saturday afternoon before a colder storm system brings widespread rain, mountain snow and a major drop in temperatures by Monday.—
Callie Zanandrie,
CBS News,
16 May 2026
Noun
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Young players may have reasonable upside, while players in their 30s are at risk of falling off the cliff.—
Law Murray,
New York Times,
18 May 2026
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With rugged cliffs rising above the Arkansas River, the canyon is a picturesque place for rafting, fishing, and hiking.—
John Hickenlooper,
Denver Post,
18 May 2026
Noun
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Developers advertised the rugged mesa—framed by the Santa Monica Mountains to the east and the ocean to the west—as an escape from the dust and noise of the growing city of Los Angeles.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
13 May 2026
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West of the mountains, the scenery opens into Utah’s red-rock country, defined by mesas and sandstone formations, before stretching into the high desert of Nevada, where towns are sparse.—
AFAR Media,
AFAR Media,
27 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Built in 1885, the route once played a key role in transporting coffee and grains from the Curitiba highlands to the coast.—
Taryn White,
Travel + Leisure,
11 May 2026
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Take away the highlands and the suburbs and the big round table, and these are two shows that tell stories through the words and actions of real people.—
Joe Reid,
Vulture,
10 May 2026
Noun
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Yuba County faces a range of natural disaster threats, including flooding near the Feather and Yuba rivers and wildfire danger in surrounding foothill communities.—
Kayla Moeller,
CBS News,
14 May 2026
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Mendoza is a destination that attracts true wine lovers with a taste for adventure, seeking to plunge into the depths of flavor Argentine wines are known for and venture to visit the gauchos in the foothills, where savory smoke billows from meat-laden asados.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
13 May 2026
Noun
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The movie’s plot is an intentional plateau, adapting the novel’s diaristic structure in the form of occasional video messages and FaceTime calls between Gianina and her nine-year-old daughter living with grandma back in Romania.—
Siddhant Adlakha,
IndieWire,
16 May 2026
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On the other hand, Lima sits on a coastal desert with extremely low rainfall, while São Paulo extends across a vast inland plateau.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
13 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Butte.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/butte. Accessed 22 May. 2026.
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