boulder

or bowl·der

[ bohl-der ]
See synonyms for boulder on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a detached and rounded or worn rock, especially a large one.

Origin of boulder

1
1610–20; short for boulder stone;Middle English bulderston<Scandinavian; compare dialectal Swedish bullersten big stone (in a stream), equivalent to buller rumbling noise (<Old Swedish bulder) + stenstone

Other words from boulder

  • bouldered, adjective
  • boul·der·y, adjective

Words that may be confused with boulder

Other definitions for Boulder (2 of 2)

Boulder
[ bohl-der ]

noun
  1. a city in N Colorado.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use boulder in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for boulder

boulder

/ (ˈbəʊldə) /


noun
  1. a smooth rounded mass of rock that has a diameter greater than 25cm and that has been shaped by erosion and transported by ice or water from its original position

  2. geology a rock fragment with a diameter greater than 256 mm and thus bigger than a cobble

Origin of boulder

1
C13: probably of Scandinavian origin; compare Swedish dialect bullersten, from Old Swedish bulder rumbling + sten stone

Derived forms of boulder

  • bouldery, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012