Alps

(ălps)

A mountain system of south-central Europe, about 800 km (500 mi) long and 160 km (100 mi) wide, curving in an arc from the Riviera on the Mediterranean Sea through northern Italy and southeast France, Switzerland, southern Germany, and Austria and into the northwest part of the Balkan Peninsula. The highest peak is Mont Blanc, 4,808 m (15,774 ft), on the French-Italian border.

[Middle English Alpes, from Old English Alpis, from Latin Alpēs; see alp.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Alps

(ælps)

pl n

1. (Placename) a mountain range in S central Europe, extending over 1000 km (650 miles) from the Mediterranean coast of France and NW Italy through Switzerland, N Italy, and Austria to Slovenia. Highest peak: Mont Blanc, 4807 m (15 771 ft)

2. (Placename) a range of mountains in the NW quadrant of the moon, which is cut in two by a straight fracture, the Alpine Valley

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Alps

(ælps)

n.pl.

a mountain range in S Europe, extending from France through Switzerland and Italy into Austria and Yugoslavia. Highest peak, Mont Blanc, 15,781 ft. (4810 m).

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

Alps - a large mountain system in south-central Europe; scenic beauty and winter sports make them a popular tourist attraction

the Alps

Italia, Italian Republic, Italy - a republic in southern Europe on the Italian Peninsula; was the core of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire between the 4th century BC and the 5th century AD

Austria, Oesterreich, Republic of Austria - a mountainous republic in central Europe; under the Habsburgs (1278-1918) Austria maintained control of the Holy Roman Empire and was a leader in European politics until the 19th century

France, French Republic - a republic in western Europe; the largest country wholly in Europe

Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera, Swiss Confederation, Switzerland - a landlocked federal republic in central Europe

Dolomite Alps - an eastern range of the Alps in northeastern Italy famous for their dolomitic limestone

Matterhorn - a mountain in the Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy (14,780 feet high); noted for its distinctive shape

Mont Blanc, Monte Bianco - the highest mountain peak in the Alps; on the border between France and Italy to the south of Geneva (15,781 feet high)

Tyrolean Alps - a popular tourist area in the Tyrol

Weisshorn - a mountain in the Alps in Switzerland (14,804 feet high)

Translations

جِبَال الأَلْب

Alpy

Alperne

Alpen

Άλπεις

Alpes

Alpid

Alpit

Alpes

Alpe

Alpok

Alpi

アルプス山脈

알프스 산맥

Alpes

Alperna

เทือกเขาแอลป์

Alpler

dãy núi Alps

阿尔卑斯山

Alps

[ælps] NPL the Alps → los Alpes

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

Alps

[ˈælps] npl
the Alps → les Alpes fpl

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Alps

pl → Alpen pl

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Alps

[ælps] npl the Alps → le Alpi

Alps

→ جِبَال الأَلْب Alpy Alperne Alpen Άλπεις Alpes Alpit Alpes Alpe Alpi アルプス山脈 알프스 산맥 Alpen Alpene Alpy Alpes Альпы Alperna เทือกเขาแอลป์ Alpler dãy núi Alps 阿尔卑斯山

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

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Then across the Alps scholars thronged from every country in Europe to listen and to learn.

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Our hotel sits at the water's edge--at least its front garden does--and we walk among the shrubbery and smoke at twilight; we look afar off at Switzerland and the Alps, and feel an indolent willingness to look no closer; we go down the steps and swim in the lake; we take a shapely little boat and sail abroad among the reflections of the stars; lie on the thwarts and listen to the distant laughter, the singing, the soft melody of flutes and guitars that comes floating across the water from pleasuring gondolas; we close the evening with exasperating billiards on one of those same old execrable tables.

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He lives on the sea, as prairie cocks in the prairie; he hides among the waves, he climbs them as chamois hunters climb the Alps. For years he knows not the land; so that when he comes to it at last, it smells like another world, more strangely than the moon would to an Earthsman.

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Detached broken fossils of pre-adamite whales, fragments of their bones and skeletons, have within thirty years past, at various intervals, been found at the base of the Alps, in Lombardy, in France, in England, in Scotland, and in the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

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Next, I saw Hannibal passing the Alps, who told me "he had not a drop of vinegar in his camp."

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There is somewhat too much of the jodeling in the Alps.

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Of the Alps and Pyrenees, with their pine forests and their vices, they might give a faithful delineation; and Italy, Switzerland, and the south of France might be as fruitful in horrors as they were there represented.

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"Augh!" sighed he, "were we only on the other side the Alps, then we should have summer, and I could get my letters of credit cashed.

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She might have been taken--had been taken--to the top of the Alps and the bottom of Herculaneum, without disarranging a fold in her dress, or displacing a pin.

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They have seen the value of the talking wire to hold their valley villages together; and so have cries-crossed the Alps with a cheap and somewhat flimsy system of telephony that carries sixty million conversations a year.

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