Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • A mountain range of southwest Europe extending along the French-Spanish border from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean Sea. Pico de Aneto, its highest point, rises to 3,404 m (11,168 ft).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun The mountain range separating Spain from France, inhabited by Basques in the west and Catalans in the east.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a chain of mountains between France and Spain

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested in 1555; from French Pyrénées, from Latin Pȳrēnæī montēs, from Ancient Greek Πυρήνη (Pūrēnē; “Pyrene”, literally “fruit-stone”), daughter of Bebryx and beloved of Herakles, and who, legend has it, is buried in the range.

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Examples

  • For high falls, the Electrical Station of Pagnieres Cap de Long, in the Pyrenees, is equipped with the two Pelton horizontal turbines producing 109,000 horsepower under a fall of 3,600 feet, which constitutes a world record of power for turbines of this category.

    The Present Day Spirit in France 1956

  • The idea of the Pyrenees is very charming, and I do not wonder Mrs. Malkin inclines thither, though I remember that when I was there, great as was my admiration for them, I felt rather as I was guilty of infidelity to the Alps all the time and made haste back to the latter, with something of penitence in delight at being once more upon my mountains.

    Further Records, 1848-1883: A Series of Letters 1891

  • I think the Pyrenees will be a sleeper just because everyone is looking at the epic Alps stages.

    Christian Vande Velde: Pyrenees are the sleeper challenge in the 2011 Tour de France 2010

  • Amidships the Pyrenees was an open flaming furnace, out of which poured an immense volume of smoke which rose high above the masts and completely hid the forward part of the ship.

    THE SEED OF McCOY 2010

  • Obstructing the view are another thousand-plus kilometers and a few bumps in the road which I have yet to experience, known as the Pyrenees, beginning Sunday.

    Brent Bookwalter’s Tour de France Diary: Stranded in the Sahara 2010

  • The field - called Pyrenees - holds an estimated 120 million barrels of recoverable oil.

    Aussie oil field approved Ed Hollett 2007

  • When the spirit of discovery was thus once awakened, a succession of intelligent and daring men were stimulated to the pursuit; and the memorable James Bruce, who had begun life as a lawyer, grown weary of the profession, and turned traveller through the South of Europe at a period when the man who ventured across the Pyrenees was a hero; gallantly fixed his eyes on Africa, as a region of wonders, of which

    Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 385. November, 1847. Various

  • The treaty of the Pyrenees was the last important achievement of

    A Political and Social History of Modern Europe V.1. Carlton J. H. Hayes 1923

  • South of the Pyrenees were the Spanish and Portuguese monarchies, which, in a long process of unification, not only had to contend against the same disuniting tendencies as appeared in France and

    A Political and Social History of Modern Europe V.1. Carlton J. H. Hayes 1923

  • Amidships the Pyrenees was an open flaming furnace, out of which poured an immense volume of smoke which rose high above the masts and completely hid the forward part of the ship.

    The Seed of McCoy 1911

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