1
: a principal mountain mass
2
: a block of the earth's crust bounded by faults or flexures and displaced as a unit without internal change
Examples of massif in a Sentence
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The rugged, zigzagging massif is the result of the collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates about 100 million years ago and later massive glacial activity in the Pleistocene epoch.
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Literary Hub, 22 Oct. 2025
Heard Island is 80 percent covered by ice and features a large massif, or compact group of mountains, called Big Ben that has an active volcano called Mawson Peak at its summit.
—Andrea Thompson, Scientific American, 3 Apr. 2025
In this nearly 22,000-acre park, travelers can walk trails up to high farming hamlets beneath cathedrals of rock or over the Albanian Alps massif and down into the beech and fir forests of Theth.
—Phoebe Smith, AFAR Media, 18 Dec. 2024
The ski motifs are tasteful, letting the views of the Vanoise massif speak for themselves.
—Ann Abel, Forbes, 13 Dec. 2024
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Literary Hub, 22 Oct. 2025
Heard Island is 80 percent covered by ice and features a large massif, or compact group of mountains, called Big Ben that has an active volcano called Mawson Peak at its summit.
—Andrea Thompson, Scientific American, 3 Apr. 2025
In this nearly 22,000-acre park, travelers can walk trails up to high farming hamlets beneath cathedrals of rock or over the Albanian Alps massif and down into the beech and fir forests of Theth.
—Phoebe Smith, AFAR Media, 18 Dec. 2024
The ski motifs are tasteful, letting the views of the Vanoise massif speak for themselves.
—Ann Abel, Forbes, 13 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for massif
Cite this Entry
“Massif.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/massif. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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