Dictionary

mastodon en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈmæs.tə.dɒn/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈmæs.tə.dən/ (General-American)
• /ˈmæs.tə.dɑn/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

First attested 1813, from translingual Mastodon (1806), coined by French naturalist Georges Cuvier, from masto- (“breast”) + -odon (“tooth”), due to the mammilloid (“nipple-shaped”) projections on the crowns of the extinct mammal's molars.

Meanings

1. Extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus †Mammut that flourished worldwide from Miocene through Pleistocene times; differs from elephants and mammoths in the form of the molar teeth.
   • When, exactly, Europeans first stumbled upon the bones of an American mastodon is unclear. An isolated molar unearthed in a field in upstate New York was sent off to London in 1705; it was labeled the “tooth of a Giant”. 2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, chapter 2, in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Henry Holt and Company:
2. (figuratively) Anything awkwardly large or unwieldy.
   • The battery is dying, and Natalia's iPhone charger doesn't fit my mastodon of a phone anyway. 2017, Nina Laurin, Girl Last Seen:
   • Nor does it work for governance: the policy has become such a mastodon that we can't adapt it quickly enough to different regions or different circumstances. 2020, Finn Laursen, The Development of the EU as a Sea-Policy Actor:

Forms

Deriveds

Mastodon · mastodonian · mastodontid · Mastodonian · mastodonic · mastodonlike

Relateds

gynecomastia · amastia · glyptodon · orthodontist · mastos · mastoid · periodontal

Synonyms

incognitum

Translations (16)

fi mastodontti (extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus Mammut) · el μαστόδοντας (extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus Mammut) · ro mastodont (extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus Mammut) · cmn 乳齒象 /乳齿象 (extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus Mammut) · ca mastodont (extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus Mammut) · pt mastodonte (extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus Mammut) · sh mastodont (extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus Mammut) · de Mastodon (extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus Mammut) · it mastodonte (extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus Mammut) · es mastodonte (extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus Mammut) · nv bíchį́į́h yee adilohii ditłʼoígíí (extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus Mammut) · fr mastodonte (extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus Mammut) · ru мастодо́нт (extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus Mammut) · pl mastodont (extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus Mammut) · mk мастодо́нт (extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus Mammut) · sv mastodont (extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus Mammut)