1. Broad assemblage of mountain ranges belonging to orogenic belts of different ages which formed originally at destructive plate margins.

2. System of mountain ranges, together with their related plateaux and intermontane basins. For example, the Cordillera of N. America includes all the mountain ranges and plateaux west of the Great Plains and of the Mexican lowlands.

3. Subsidiary complex of ranges within a mountain system, e.g. the eastern and western cordillera of the Andes.

4. Individual range, e.g. the Cordillera Patagonica of the southern Andes.