Noun

(en noun)

A large mass of earth and rock, rising above the common level of the earth or adjacent land, usually given by geographers as above 1000 feet in height (or 304.8 metres), though such masses may still be described as hills in comparison with larger mountains.

Everest is the highest mountain in the world.

We spent the weekend hiking in the mountains .

A large amount.

There's still a mountain of work to do.

(figuratively) A difficult task or challenge.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Phil Dawkes , title=Sunderland 2 - 2 West Brom , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Five minutes into the game the Black Cats were facing a mountain , partly because of West Brom's newly-found ruthlessness in front of goal but also as a result of the home side's defensive generosity.}}

Noun

(-)

(geomorphology) the scientific study, or a physical description of mountains

* {{quote-book

, year= 1846 , year_published= 1849 , author= (Joseph Emerson Worcester) , by= , title= A universal and critical dictionary of the English language: to which are added Walker's Key to the pronunciation of classical and Scripture proper names, much enlarged and improved, and a pronouncing vocabulary of modern geographical names , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=skKXeqYiX48C&pg=RA1-PA501 , original= , chapter= , section= , isbn= , edition= , publisher= Wilkins, Carter, and Company , location= Boston , editor= , volume= , page= 501 , passage= Orography : A description of mountains. }}

* {{quote-book

, year= 1853 , year_published= , author= (Edward Hitchcock) , by= , title= Outline of the Geology of the Globe and of the United States in Particular with Sketches of Characteristic American Fossils. , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=sntJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA10 , original= , chapter= The Geology of the Globe , section= , isbn= , edition= , publisher= Phillips, Sampson & Company , location= Boston , editor= , volume= , page= 10 , passage= A knowledge of the Hydrography of a country aids as much in determining its geology as does its Orography , — that is, a description of its mountains. }}

the orographic features of a region

* 1911 , ,

Morocco was in 1883-1884 the scene of important explorations by de Foucauld, a Frenchman who, disguised as a Jew, crossed and re-crossed the Atlas and supplied the first trustworthy information as to the orography of many parts of the chain.

* 1995 , B. W. Atkinson, Introduction to the fluid mechanics of meso-scale flow fields'', in A. Gyr, Franz-S. Rys (editors), ''Diffusion and Transport of Pollutants in Atmospheric Mesoscale Flow Fields , page 20,

Most flows actually occur, of course, over non-uniform orography and consequently in numerical models of such flows it is necessary to transform the coordinates so that the equations accurately represent flows in such terrain (Gal-Chen and Somerville 1975).

* 2006 , Austin Woods, Medium-Range Weather Prediction: The European Approach , page 105,

The independent scientists of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) expressed concerns about how the spectral model would deal with steep mountains.It was this work that lead to development of the envelope orography outlined below.