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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There are high-mountain hikes aplenty, and the team can help set up trips to religious events (if the times align) and visits to traditional nomad families to learn more about the local culture.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
25 Apr. 2026
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But, while watching the rugged coastline dip in and out of fjords and spiky mountains tumble down into the sea, magicians and musicals were far from my mind.—
Karen Gardiner,
Travel + Leisure,
25 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Here's how Congress might fix Social Security Social Security is hurtling toward a fiscal cliff.—
Daniel de Visé,
USA Today,
27 Apr. 2026
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As the footage continues, Muirhead glides over cliffs and homes, laptop in hand, appearing to continue his work mid-flight.—
Ashley Vega,
PEOPLE,
27 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Take in jaw-dropping views of the Painted Desert, a colorful expanse of hills, buttes, and mesas.—
Lydia Mansel,
Travel + Leisure,
4 Apr. 2026
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Enter a ravine and follow gradual switchbacks to a small mesa at the top.—
Madison Chapman,
Outside,
25 Mar. 2026
Noun
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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
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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
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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
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Cucumbers were first cultivated in the Himalayan foothills of the Indian peninsula over 3000 years ago.—
Andrés Muedano,
JSTOR Daily,
25 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Then, in the next neuron, a dendritic plateau potential causes a widespread voltage change that spreads across the entire dendrite.—
Yasemin Saplakoglu,
Quanta Magazine,
24 Apr. 2026
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Now that the face-lift of 16th Street has been completed, city officials and downtown advocates are hoping that 2026 sees activity start to pick up and push past that three-year plateau.—
Jessica Alvarado Gamez,
Denver Post,
24 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Butte.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/butte. Accessed 2 May. 2026.
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