hummock means A small hill; a hillock; a knoll. It carries an Arena rating of 1708, earned across 34 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, hummock ranks #1,909 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #2,468 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #3,036 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,208 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words.
hummock is pronounced /ˈhʌmək/.
Why “hummock” is a great word
HUMMOCK — [Noun] A small, rounded hill or mound; also, a ridge or heap of ice in an ice field. Probably a diminutive of 'hump', using the suffix '-ock' (as in 'hillock'); first attested in the mid-1500s in a nautical context. Unlike "hillock," which suggests a specific, natural earthen rise, or "knoll," which implies a tidy, grassy prominence, a hummock is a rugged, irregular protuberance shaped by indifferent forces. It is a solitary, moss-draped swell in a salt marsh, a wind-scoured ridge of pressure ice on a polar sea, or a weary, turf-clad bump that twists an ankle in a familiar field—the land's quiet insistence on form, a minor defiance of the flat.
Etymology
Unknown, but probably a diminutive of hump, equivalent to hump + -ock (diminutive suffix). Compare hillock.
noun
- A small hill; a hillock; a knoll.e.g.“The west edge of their landing area was swarming with…things. Like wolves or dogs, but with long necks, they moved quickly forward, darting from hummock to hummock” — 2020 [1992], Vernor Vinge, chapter 3, in A Fire Upon the Deep, 1st edition, New York: Tor Essentials, →ISBN, page 36:
- A ridge or hill of ice in an ice field.
- A fistful.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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