Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
Bighorn River

Bighorn River

5.1
A river in the western United States that flows from central Wyoming to the Yellowstone River in southern Montana
  • proper noun
translation icon : río Bighorn
  • Fishing along the Bighorn River is a popular activity for locals and visitors alike.

Examples

  • Lieutenant Bradley let his mind wander back to the morning before, when they left to scout around the Little Bighorn River.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The Bighorn River flows through beautiful landscapes in Wyoming before it joins the Yellowstone River.

  • The mountain ridge above them was bare, with some sagebrush and brown grass; the water of the Little Bighorn River was unbelievably blue.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Corporals Bostwick and Goodwin volunteered and were commissioned to ride on to the Bighorn River to notify the Commander, General Terry, about what had happened.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Many hikers enjoy the scenic views near the Bighorn River during their outdoor adventures.

Surface Forms

Bighorn River main

Morphology

Bighorn + river

This is a compositional toponym: the structure is simply [name] + river, so a learner who knows the constituent words (that 'Bighorn' is a name or lexical compound and 'river' is a watercourse) can infer it denotes a river called Bighorn. Such place-name + feature constructions are cross-linguistically common and thus readily understandable to B1 learners who know the parts.

Etymology

Bighorn River was named for the wild bighorn sheep with big curved horns that once lived along its banks. So the river's name simply points to those animals, which makes the place easy to remember.