–noun

1.	a natural elevation of the earth's surface rising more or less abruptly to a summit, and attaining an altitude greater than that of a hill, usually greater than 2000 ft. (610 m).

2.	a large mass of something resembling this, as in shape or size.

3.	a huge amount: a mountain of incoming mail.

4.	(initial capital letter) a steam locomotive having a four-wheeled front truck, eight driving wheels, and a two-wheeled rear truck.

5.	Also called mountain wine. British Archaic. a sweet Malaga wine.

–adjective

6.	of or pertaining to mountains: mountain air.

7.	living, growing, or located in the mountains: mountain people.

8.	resembling or suggesting a mountain, as in size.

—Idiom

9.	make a mountain out of a molehill. molehill (def. 2).

c.1420, from L. pictura "painting," from pictus, pp. of pingere "to make pictures, to paint, to embroider," (see paint). The verb, in the mental sense, is from 1738; pictures "movies," short for moving pictures, is from 1912. Picture post-card first recorded 1899. Phrase every picture tells a story first attested 1906, in an advertisement for kidney pills; a picture is worth a thousand words 7df (1921), said to be a Confucian proverb, first recorded in a printers' professional journal.