strip mine

1. 1.

   an open mine (usually for coal) where the seams run close to the surface

   Broadermine

1. 1.

   extract (ore) from a strip-mine

   Synonymssurface minesurface-mine

   Broadermine

   mining

Questions about strip mine

What does strip mine mean?

strip mine means "an open mine (usually for coal) where the seams run close to the surface". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for strip mine?

Close synonyms include surface mine, surface-mine. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is strip mine a common word?

strip mine is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.