range of mountains
1
2.3
- noun
:
cordillera
- From the summit, we could see a breathtaking range of mountains stretching into the horizon.
- looking at a range of mountains
- range of mountains toward the east
They then between the them on the other side of the river, there's a range of mountains.
- They then between the them on the other side of the river, there's a range of mountains.
Examples
-
There are still folk in this town who remember Andrewes as an old, old man greeting dawn above the eastern range of mountains.
Fiction book (1994) -
You can see great distances in whatever direction you turn, and to the west is a range of mountains maybe fifty miles from here, but in the morning, with the sun on them, you can see the snow on their crests.
Fiction book (2000) -
But I noticed a range of mountains toward the east.
Fiction book (1990) -
This whole range of mountains is extends for thousands of miles.
-
One range of mountains was, by my guess, fifty to sixty miles away.
Fiction book (1991) -
He takes a deep breath as he looks at a range of mountains in the distance.
Fiction book (1994) -
We're in a valley between the two ranges of mountains, and you won't get out unless you fly out.
-
Betty went to the picture on the wall, a simple landscape: the slope of a hill, a few trees, a distant range of mountains.
Fiction book (1992) -
I always wanted to find out things, watch things, follow the track of the sun across the sky, and see beyond the farthest range of mountains.
Fiction book (1992) -
Beneath us stretched an expanse of rolling gray dumplings pierced at the horizon by the tips of a range of mountains.
Fiction book (1999)
Synonyms
71
2.5
A connected line of hills or mountains
20
1.8
A long line of connected mountains that forms a high area
15
7.0
A line of connected hills or mountains
1
2.9
A long line of high land with many connected peaks
1
3.0
A line of connected mountains or hills
A mountain range with jagged, rocky peaks
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'range' (a group/chain) combined with 'mountain(s)' yields a continuous chain of mountains, and the preposition 'of' simply links the head and the complement. This noun phrase follows a common, cross-linguistic pattern and would be immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Range of mountains comes from the image of many mountains placed in a long row. The word range once meant 'a row' or 'a long stretch', so people called a connected line of peaks a range of mountains, and that's why it now means 'a chain of connected peaks'.