surmount
Americanverb (used with object)
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surmounts,
present (3rd person singular)
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surmounted,
past participle, past
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surmounting
present participle
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to mount upon; get on the top of; mount upon and cross over.
to surmount a hill.
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to get over or across (barriers, obstacles, etc.).
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to prevail over.
to surmount tremendous difficulties.
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to be on top of or above.
a statue surmounting a pillar.
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to furnish with something placed on top or above.
to surmount a tower with a spire.
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Obsolete.
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to surpass in excellence.
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to exceed in amount.
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verb
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to prevail over; overcome
to surmount tremendous difficulties
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to ascend and cross to the opposite side of
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to lie on top of or rise above
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to put something on top of or above
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obsolete to surpass or exceed
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
surmountsimple
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surmountssimple
-
have surmountedperfect
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has surmountedperfect
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am surmountingprogressive
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are surmountingprogressive
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is surmountingprogressive
-
have been surmountingperfect progressive
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has been surmountingperfect progressive
Past
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surmountedsimple
-
had surmountedperfect
-
was surmountingprogressive
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were surmountingprogressive
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had been surmountingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of surmount
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, from Anglo-French sormonter, surmounter, Old French sor(e)monter, s(o)urmonter; see sur- 1, mount 1
Explanation
If you surmount a challenge or difficult situation, you're not just getting over it. You're outdoing yourself, exceeding expectations, and overcoming the task at hand. This word comes to us from the Old French verb for mount, or climb. Maria sang "climb every mountain..." in The Sound of Music. But she could have just as well meant "surmount every obstacle" — because to surmount means to both reach the highest point of something, like a mountain, and to totally overcome a mountain-size problem.
Vocabulary lists containing surmount
"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
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This Feb. 29: 15 Words for "Leap"
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On Your Mark, Get Set, Commence Your Life!
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Sometimes, even the best-laid plans can’t surmount a brick wall.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 23, 2026
Treasury yields rose as inflation fears continued to surmount growth worries—even after a disappointing U.S. jobs print Friday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026
Elwood is convinced he can surmount obstacles; Turner is resigned to going around them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2024
The results have implications for efforts to help children with hearing loss surmount initial language delays caused by a lack of auditory input and access to speech sounds before they receive cochlear implants.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2024
And yet it’s good that we have to surmount them, since it makes the end that much more beautiful.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
Yet the show, now on view at the Brick through Sept. 19, is an achingly beautiful meditation on the difficulty of communication and the shared goodwill that intermittently, imperfectly, surmounts it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
The line surmounts central Tacoma’s steep slope by climbing north of downtown, followed by a U-turn into Martin Luther King, Jr. Way South.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 22, 2023
Yet however cleverly constructed and enthusiastically executed, this debut feature — shot on an iPhone in a single location — rarely surmounts the twistiness of its premise and the repetitiveness of its setups.
From New York Times ● Jan. 25, 2022
It’s the sort of heartening journey that will make one want to shout “Go, Teddy! Go!” each time he surmounts another hurdle.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 19, 2019
The dogs fall silent at the edge of my spell, and where the king’s hall surmounts the town, the blind old Shaper, harp clutched tight to his fragile chest, stares futilely down, straight at me.
From "Grendel" by John Gardner
Farage has also finally surmounted many of the internal problems that bedevilled his previous parties.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
Stocks have also surmounted another potential threat: The revival of the conflict between the U.S. and Iran.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026
There are many engineering challenges that would have to be surmounted to make such a system operational, says Cohen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
The researchers have now surmounted this security vulnerability by leveraging terahertz waves to develop an antitampering ID tag that still offers the benefits of being tiny, cheap, and secure.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 19, 2024
Roughly halfway along the front there was a wide row of steps, surmounted by a portico where classical columns supported a pediment….Was that a figure among the columns?
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
Walker—three women who built empires by surmounting steep racial and gender barriers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 2026
While Siwa faced surmounting challenges when she came out — the star was able to do it years earlier than child stars who came before her like Lovato and Symoné.
From Salon ● Sep. 21, 2024
The paper also provides examples of how people are surmounting some of these obstacles.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 16, 2023
It’s associated with pleasure and the expectation or experience of a reward, which can include the surmounting of a threat “such as overcoming fear, winning a race, receiving respect and approbation from others,” Spiegel says.
From National Geographic ● Oct. 16, 2023
When they were able to arrange a meeting, surmounting all of Blanca’s usual obstacles in addition to the new ones imposed by Pedro’s job, they would find themselves more full of anguish than desire.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
