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Webster 1913 Edition

Mastodon

Mas′to-don

,
Noun.
[Gr.
μαστόσ
the breast +
ὀδούς
,
ὀδόντος
, a tooth. So called from the conical projections upon its molar teeth.]
(Paleon.)
An extinct genus of mammals closely allied to the elephant, but having less complex molar teeth, and often a pair of lower, as well as upper, tusks, which are incisor teeth. The species were mostly larger than elephants, and their remains occur in nearly all parts of the world in deposits ranging from Miocene to late Quaternary time.

Webster 1828 Edition

Mastodon

MAS'TODON

,
Noun.
[Gr. mamilla, and tooth.] A genus of mammiferous animals resembling the elephant, now extinct, and known only by their fossil remains. It includes the N. American mammoth.

Definition 2024

Mastodon

Mastodon

See also: mastodon

Translingual

Etymology

Coined by French naturalist Georges Cuvier, from Ancient Greek μαστός ‎(mastós, “breast”) + ὀδούς ‎(odoús, “tooth”), from the similarity of the mammilloid projections on the crowns of the extinct mammal's molars.

Proper noun

Mastodon m

  1. (obsolete) A taxonomic genus within the family Mammutidae – the mastodon, a type of mammoth; replaced by Mammut.

English

Noun

Mastodon ‎(plural Mastodons)

  1. A nickname for both the 4-8-0 and (though incorrectly) the 4-10-0 train configurations.

mastodon

mastodon

See also: Mastodon

English

Wikispecies

Alternative forms

Noun

mastodon ‎(plural mastodons)

  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.
mastodon

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology

First attested 1813, from the New Latin genus name Mastodon (1806), coined by French naturalist Georges Cuvier, from Ancient Greek μαστός ‎(mastós, “breast”) + ὀδούς ‎(odoús, “tooth”), from the similarity of the mammilloid projections on the crowns of the extinct mammal's molars.

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