The word "over" is used quite often in the Book of Mormon. It is used 234 times to indicate that someone has power or authority over someone else. Examples are kings or judges that had authority over people, God's power over people, and Satan's power over people.

It is used 37 times to indicate physically going over something, for example, over a wall. It was in these instances that there was a common structure to the phrases that used the term "over." These phrases used with the term were "came over", "went over", "go over", "come over", "over to", "sent over", and "over into." These phrases were not used everywhere when there was travel to another place, which meant there was some reason for using them when they were used and some reason not to use them where they were not used. The verse in II Nephi 5:111 [8:23], "And thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street to them that went over," indicated that these terms meant that in the places where they were used that the people were actually going over something.

When applied to geography, people only go over certain things between places. These are ridges or where the terrain itself is higher between the two places. In general, people do not go over mountains since they would go around mountains or through valleys between mountains to get from one place to another. So, when these phases were found, I placed a "ridge" between the two places mentioned. There was no assumption made about the width or size of the ridge. A ridge could be a few hundred yards wide or it could be several miles wide. These phrases became indicators to mean a ridge or elevated terrain just like "up" means higher in altitude and "down" means lower in altitude. The phrases are used consistently throughout the Book of Mormon to mean elevated terrain.

"Over" was used 25 times for a few other meanings. These include having joy or mourning over a person, looking over or crying over something, spreading over the land, once as crossing over a river, and once as a metaphor in "over that everlasting gulf of death and misery." However, the key phrases that mean a ridge or elevated terrain were never used with these other meanings.