Tepui
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A type of table-top mountain or mesa found in the Guiana Highlands of South America, especially in Venezuela.
"2005, P. E. Berry, R. Riina, Insights into the diversity of the Pantepui flora and the biogeographic complexity of the Guayana Shield, Ib Friis, Henrik Balslev (editors), Plant Diversity and Complexity Patterns, page 153, Once a population becomes adapted to the tepui summit environment, it is more likely to colonize other areas with similar environmental conditions, so it would need to disperse between tepui summits to expand its geographical range."
Example
More examples"2005, P. E. Berry, R. Riina, Insights into the diversity of the Pantepui flora and the biogeographic complexity of the Guayana Shield, Ib Friis, Henrik Balslev (editors), Plant Diversity and Complexity Patterns, page 153, Once a population becomes adapted to the tepui summit environment, it is more likely to colonize other areas with similar environmental conditions, so it would need to disperse between tepui summits to expand its geographical range."
Etymology
From Spanish tepuy, from Pemon tüpü (“rocky system, mountain, tepui”), though sometimes erroneously said to be from Pemon tapüi (“house”) in the sense of ‘house of the gods’. Perhaps ultimately related to Proto-Cariban *tôpu (“stone”), though the Pemon etymon is not a direct descendant.
Related phrases
More for "tepui"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.