HEADSTONE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does headstone mean? 

• HEADSTONE (noun)
  The noun HEADSTONE has 2 senses:

1. the central building block at the top of an arch or vault

2. a stone that is used to mark a grave

  Familiarity information: HEADSTONE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HEADSTONE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The central building block at the top of an arch or vault

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

headstone; key; keystone

Hypernyms ("headstone" is a kind of...):

building block (a block of material used in construction work)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "headstone"):

coign; coigne; quoin (the keystone of an arch)

Holonyms ("headstone" is a part of...):

arch ((architecture) a masonry construction (usually curved) for spanning an opening and supporting the weight above it)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A stone that is used to mark a grave

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

gravestone; headstone; tombstone

Hypernyms ("headstone" is a kind of...):

memorial; monument (a structure erected to commemorate persons or events)

stone (building material consisting of a piece of rock hewn in a definite shape for a special purpose)

Holonyms ("headstone" is a part of...):

grave; tomb (a place for the burial of a corpse (especially beneath the ground and marked by a tombstone))

 Context examples 

I cannot tell what sentiment haunted the quite solitary churchyard, with its inscribed headstone; its gate, its two trees, its low horizon, girdled by a broken wall, and its newly-risen crescent, attesting the hour of eventide.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)