butte

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Butte, mesa, plateau, and hill all describe elevated landforms, but they differ in shape, size, and setting. A butte is the smallest of the group — a narrow, steep-sided hill with a flat top that rises alone from a flat plain. A mesa is larger and wider than a butte, with the same flat top and steep sides; the name comes from the Spanish word for 'table.' A plateau is much larger than either a butte or mesa and covers hundreds or thousands of square kilometres — it is an entire region of high, flat land (for example, the Tibetan Plateau). A hill is the most general term: any raised area of land, usually with a rounded top rather than a flat one. In the American Southwest, a traveller might drive across a plateau, stop to photograph a mesa, and then hike up a butte for the view — each word marks a different scale.

Common collocations

Etymology

Butte entered English from French, where 'butte' originally meant a small hill or a mound used as an archery target. French borrowed it from Old Norse or Frankish roots meaning 'a raised lump or bump.' The word has been used in American English since the early 1800s by explorers and settlers travelling through the western United States, who applied it to the dramatic flat-topped hills they found in the desert landscapes of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico.