How to pronounce word in English - English Word Dictionary- Learn English free online - English Learning Online

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

obelisk

obe·lisk [ ˈä-bə-ˌlisk]

obelisk

noun

[ˈä-bə-ˌlisk]

Definition of obelisk

1 : an upright 4-sided usually monolithic pillar that gradually tapers as it rises and terminates in a pyramid

2a : obelus

b : dagger sense 2b

Recent Examples on the Web

//The youthful protesters, with a sprinkling of older ones, gathered Friday morning opposite the U.N. under a peace obelisk in Ralph Bunche Park.
— Washington Post, "Swedish teen climate activist leads protest near UN," 30 Aug. 2019
//Per a press release, Beyond Midnight opens with a 9-foot-tall replica of an obelisk erected in Boston following the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766.
— Meilan Solly, Smithsonian, "Exploring Paul Revere’s Legacy Beyond His Famed Midnight Ride," 12 Sep. 2019
//Topiary is the art of growing trees and shrubs as living sculptures — cubes, spheres, obelisks, animal shapes or combinations of these.
— Washington Post, "Topiary tips: When you want shrubs to double as sculpture," 30 July 2019
//In Alabama, there are majority African American cities with parks featuring monuments to an insurrection against the United States — statues, plaques, busts and obelisks honoring the enslavement, torture and murder of those citizens' ancestors.
— al, "We didn’t need blackface to know who Kay Ivey is. She already showed us," 29 Aug. 2019
//And there is the forest, a 250-square-mile protected area, where, not too far from the obelisk in the center, the five-foot concrete block bearing Georges Mandel’s likeness sits in the waving grass.
— James Mcauley, Town & Country, "The Haunting of Paris: Georges Mandel and the Long Legacy of Nazi Violence," 6 Aug. 2019
//Markers also will be installed at a monument on Peachtree Battle Avenue and, in historic Oakland Cemetery, the Lion of Atlanta and an obelisk.
— Dakin Andone, CNN, "Georgia law prohibits removing these Confederate monuments. So Atlanta is adding context," 2 Aug. 2019
//An obelisk monument that would become the subject of local controversy a century later had not yet been commissioned by the Daughters of the Confederacy.
— John Hammontree | Jhammontree@al.com, al.com, "Could a new monument heal Jefferson County’s racial divide?," 22 July 2019
//These were the same kind of guys who were building these obelisks so many thousands of years ago.
— Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, "Political Punk Rock That Protests Its Own Singer," 21 June 2019

First Known Use of obelisk

1561, in the meaning defined at sense 1

History and Etymology for obelisk

borrowed from Latin obeliscus "four-sided pillar," borrowed from Greek obelískos "skewer, four-sided pillar," diminutive of obelós "spit, four-sided pillar" — more at obelus

Dictionary Entries near obelisk

More Synonyms and Antonyms ofobelisk