Cordilleras

a range of mountains. The word is Spanish, meaning originally a cord or rope. It is a general word like plateau, and is used by the Spanish to designate a chain of mountains. As a proper name, the term was first applied by the Spaniards to the ranges of the Andes, and was extended to the ranges of Mexico and farther northward. American geographers are now pretty well agreed to confine the term to the vast mountain system embraced by the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. The Cordilleras, taken in this sense, are a thousand miles in width in the latitude of Colorado, and extend from Central America to Alaska. The Coast Range and the Cascades are included.