These words refer to projections of earth or stone that are elevated above the surrounding landscape. Mountain refers to a high-rising rocky projection that is typically steep and has a narrow summit. When mountains occur grouped together they are collectively called a range : The Blue Mountains near Sydney are an eastward spur of the Great Dividing Range . A plateau is a mountain that has a wide flat top, as though the peak had been sliced off or the mountain truncated at some midway point. Plateau may also refer to a tableland – an extensive area of highly sides like a mountain but may merge more gradually with the surrounding lowlands. The Atherton Tableland in north Queensland is a fertile plateau of the Great Dividing Range , with an area of some 12,000 square miles and an average height of 2,500 feet.

Hill indicates a projection of earth that is more low-lying than a mountain; such a shape may be of considerable size: the Cheviot Hills between England and Scotland. Or it may point to a very slight rise of ground: the hill at one end of the garden. Hillock specifically points to such a small hill , typically suggesting a brief grassy rise of indefinite or ragged shape: leaving undisturbed occasional bushy hillock on either side of the highway.

The remaining words suggest abrupt or jutting outcroppings of rocky forms that may or may not be topographically part of a mountain . Cliff indicates a high vertical shape that drops away suddenly to a lower level; it is particularly used to refer to the edges or side of a mountain or plateau: a winding road cut into the cliff . The word may indicate a sharp break between two level stretches: sauntering out to stand on the cliff overlooking the ocean.

Precipice is less general in referring almost solely to a sharply jutting vertical rise or overhang of rock or stone: the precipice made by the steep side of the mountain . Promontory specifically indicates a high point of land such as a hill or cliff that extends into the sea: the lighthouse set on a promontory that dominated the surrounding landscape.

Mountain has a wide range of metaphorical uses referring to great amounts, weights or sizes: a mountain of work; this mountain of a man. In a special figurative sense, hill is often used to imply deterioration of faculties because of age: The professor is over the hill – he should have retired years ago. Used metaphorically, precipice usually suggests danger, as from falling: moving closer to the precipice of nuclear war.