tepui means A type of table-top mountain or mesa found in the Guiana Highlands of South America, especially in Venezuela. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
tepui is pronounced /ˈtɛpwi/.
Why “tepui” is a great word
TEPUI — [Noun] A massive, flat-topped sandstone mountain, isolated and sheer-sided, rising from the rainforest of the Guiana Highlands. From Spanish 'tepuy', from Pemon 'tüpü' ("rocky system, mountain, tepui"), perhaps ultimately related to Proto-Cariban *tôpu ("stone"). Unlike a "mesa," which rises from arid plains, or a "plateau," which suggests a connected expanse, a tepui is a solitary, rain-drenched fortress of Precambrian rock. It is the cloud-piercing cliff face rising from a sea of jungle; the cool summit of carnivorous plants and blackwater pools; the origin of rivers that begin as sheer waterfalls plunging into the mist—a monument not to what the earth has built, but to all it has worn away and left behind.
Etymology
From Spanish tepuy, from Pemon tüpü (“rocky system, mountain, tepui”), though sometimes erroneously said to be from Pemon tapüi (“house”) in the sense of ‘house of the gods’. Perhaps ultimately related to Proto-Cariban *tôpu (“stone”), though the Pemon etymon is not a direct descendant.
noun
- A type of table-top mountain or mesa found in the Guiana Highlands of South America, especially in Venezuela.“2005, P. E. Berry, R. Riina, Insights into the diversity of the Pantepui flora and the biogeographic complexity of the Guayana Shield, Ib Friis, Henrik Balslev (editors), Plant Diversity and Complexity Patterns, page 153,
Once a population becomes adapted to the tepui summit environment, it is more likely to colonize other areas with similar environmental conditions, so it would need to disperse b”