# The difference between Hills and Mountains.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-difference-between-hills-and-mountains/69611
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 21, 2001, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-difference-between-hills-and-mountains/69611 "2001-06-21T13:23:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2001, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-difference-between-hills-and-mountains/69611/1 "2001-06-21T13:23:17Z")
Read this recently…
> [@](#):
>
> There is no universally accepted standard definition for the height of a mountain or a hill although a mountain usually has an identifiable summit. In the United Kingdom, a mountain must be over 600 meters (1969 feet) or over 300 meters (984 feet) if it’s an abrupt difference in the local topography. However, some hills can be called mountains and some mountains can be called hills - it’s just a matter of the original name given to the relief.
Any one else have an opinion???
Gp
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### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2001, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-difference-between-hills-and-mountains/69611/2 "2001-06-21T13:37:00Z")
There was a fairly entertaining British movie made 5-6 years ago called _ **The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain** _ about a cartographer who, while doing field research, notices that a local “mountain” has lost just a few feet of elevation (due to erosion, earth compaction, etc.) but enough to officialy require him to downgrade it to a “hill”, much to the consternation of the locals who take pride in having a “mountain” and who respond in a manner very similar to the great Ealing comedies of the 40s and 50s. Starring Hugh Grant for those who need warning about such things, but also the very yummy Tara Fitzgerald.
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### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2001, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-difference-between-hills-and-mountains/69611/3 "2001-06-21T13:45:54Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by grimpixie \*
> **Any one else have an opinion???**
Yes. The entire Goose clan feels that the movie in question was one of the dullest movies to come down the pike in a long time, any “yumminess” of Tara Fitzgerald’s notwithstanding.
And we thought that this [Movie-A-Minute review](http://www.rinkworks.com/movieaminute/m/englishman.shtml) summed it up perfectly.
Carry on. 🙂
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### Author:  [@BlueMoonofKentucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueMoonofKentucky)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2001, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-difference-between-hills-and-mountains/69611/4 "2001-06-21T16:13:58Z")
Having lived among mountains all my life I offer the following
It depends on who you ask \.
I call a hill something that you can see over w/o climbing.
I can see where someone living at 5000+ feet in colorado, with peaks rising to 10+Kfeet would chuckle when I say that I live in the Appalachian \*\* mountains \*\*. But individual mountains here rise steeply (50+ degrees) for 3-4 thousand feet, very thickly forested. My buddy in CO would say that anything 3-4k feet might be a hill.
Anybody here have a geological definition?