Cordilleras

[ kawr-dl-yair-uhz, -air-, kawr-dil-er-uhz; Spanish kawr-thee-ye-rahs ]

noun

1. a mountain system in western South America: the Andes and its component ranges.
2. a mountain system in western North America, including the Sierra Nevada, Coast Range, Cascade Range, and Rocky Mountains.
3. the entire chain of mountain ranges parallel to the Pacific coast, extending from Cape Horn to Alaska.

Cordilleras

/ korðiˈʎeras; ˌkɔːdɪlˈjɛərəz /

plural noun

1. the Cordilleras
   the complex of mountain ranges on the W side of the Americas, extending from Alaska to Cape Horn and including the Andes and the Rocky Mountains

Other Words From

• Cordil·leran adjective
• trans-Cor·dil·leran adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Cordilleras¹

First recorded in 1700–10, in reference to the Andes; cordillera ( def )

Example Sentences

In the valleys between Colombia’s triplicate Cordilleras, you could sip coffee among green hills in the department of Quindío and salsa dance in the lowland city of Cali.

From New York Times

For the study, researchers from France, Denmark and the United States analyzed 800,000 pairs of satellite images, including small glaciers that have never been studied, such as in New Zealand and the southern cordilleras of South America, as well as large ones in Patagonia and the Arctic.

From Washington Post

The yellow-eared parrot grew from 100 birds to 2,900 in the Tres Cordilleras region alone.

From Washington Post

Cardona, who managed the Andean Parrot Reserve of Roncesvalles in the center of the Tres Cordilleras mountain range in western Colombia, labored for 20 years to save the endangered yellow-eared parrot.

From Washington Post

“We have always been saying that if you really look at it, indigenous peoples manage very large areas of biodiversity. But to have governments accept that, and to make it one of the major findings of the report, is quite significant,” says Joji Carino, who is Ibaloi-Igorot from the Philippines’ Cordilleras Highlands and a senior policy adviser of the Forest Peoples Programme.

From Scientific American