the university has long been a mother lode of athletic talent, with many alumni joining the rarefied ranks of the professionals

Recent Examples on the Web

Truly, America’s protean black musical mother lode has found expression in popular genres of its own invention—not string quartets, symphonies and operas. Joseph Horowitz, WSJ, "A Symphony to Link Africa and America," 7 Feb. 2020

Pebble Partnership’s corporate parent, Northern Dynasty Minerals, originally envisioned 78 years of mining, which would recover a little more than half of the mother lode. Los Angeles Times, "This Alaska mine could generate $1 billion a year. Is it worth the risk to salmon?," 23 Oct. 2019

The biennial’s emphasis on Chicago is all to the good, reversing the tendency of the first two exhibitions to treat the city as a backdrop rather than a mother lode that could be mined for comparisons, contrasts and connections with other cities. Blair Kamin, chicagotribune.com, "New Chicago Architecture Biennial opens and wants to upset the way you see the city. That’s why you should see it.," 19 Sep. 2019

The Real Deal: Could this be the Rise of Skywalker rumor mother lode? Wired, "Rise of Skywalker," 9 Sep. 2019

But there may be other spots on the moon that could yield a mother lode of scientific data—as well as the resources needed to sustain human occupation of Earth’s celestial next door neighbor. Leonard David, Scientific American, "Will Future Lunar Bases Be Underground?," 31 July 2019

The Austrian capital was (apart from the Churchill) the mother lode of our collection. Zofia Smardz, Washington Post, "Souvenir matchbooks once were a hot item. Can they still rekindle travel memories?," 26 July 2019

The mother lode of silver inside the 15,800-foot Cerro Rico gave rise to the city of Potosi, Bolivia, which in the 1500s became the richest city in the world. John Briley, Washington Post, "Endangered destinations," 18 July 2019

In the storm’s wake, the mother lode of numbing cold will crash south — likely to be the last but most bitter in brutal blasts since Christmas Eve in the Northeast. Jason Samenow, Washington Post, "‘Bomb cyclone’ blasting East Coast before polar vortex uncorks tremendous cold late this week," 3 Jan. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'mother lode.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.