Inselberg

//ˈɪnsəlˌbɜːɡ// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A monadnock (isolated mountain).

    "Click: forest elephant, stern and alert. Click: humpback whale, breaching skyward like a frisky trout. Click: Gaboon viper, its big coppery head so close to the lens you could almost feel the flick of its tongue. Click: granite inselberg, like a great igneous gumdrop, protruding above forest canopy. Click: bulge-eyed hippopotamus, almost unrecognizably strange and serene, riding a wave along the Atlantic coast."

Example

More examples

"Click: forest elephant, stern and alert. Click: humpback whale, breaching skyward like a frisky trout. Click: Gaboon viper, its big coppery head so close to the lens you could almost feel the flick of its tongue. Click: granite inselberg, like a great igneous gumdrop, protruding above forest canopy. Click: bulge-eyed hippopotamus, almost unrecognizably strange and serene, riding a wave along the Atlantic coast."

Etymology

From German Inselberg, from Insel (“island”) + Berg (“mountain”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.