English Dictionary

PINNACLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does pinnacle mean? 

PINNACLE (noun)
  The noun PINNACLE has 3 senses:

1. (architecture) a slender upright spire at the top of a buttress of towerplay

2. the highest level or degree attainable; the highest stage of developmentplay

3. a lofty peakplay

  Familiarity information: PINNACLE used as a noun is uncommon.


PINNACLE (verb)
  The verb PINNACLE has 2 senses:

1. surmount with a pinnacleplay

2. raise on or as if on a pinnacleplay

  Familiarity information: PINNACLE used as a verb is rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


PINNACLE (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

(architecture) a slender upright spire at the top of a buttress of tower

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

spire; steeple (a tall tower that forms the superstructure of a building (usually a church or temple) and that tapers to a point at the top)

Domain category:

architecture (the discipline dealing with the principles of design and construction and ornamentation of fine buildings)

Derivation:

pinnacle (raise on or as if on a pinnacle)

pinnacle (surmount with a pinnacle)


Sense 2

Meaning:

The highest level or degree attainable; the highest stage of development

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

acme; elevation; height; meridian; peak; pinnacle; summit; superlative; tiptop; top

Context example:

at the top of his profession

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

degree; level; point; stage (a specific identifiable position in a continuum or series or especially in a process)


Sense 3

Meaning:

A lofty peak

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

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

crest; crown; peak; summit; tip; top (the top or extreme point of something (usually a mountain or hill))


PINNACLE (verb)


Sense 1

Meaning:

Surmount with a pinnacle

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

pinnacle a pediment

Hypernyms (to "pinnacle" is one way to...):

surmount (be on top of)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

pinnacle ((architecture) a slender upright spire at the top of a buttress of tower)


Sense 2

Meaning:

Raise on or as if on a pinnacle

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

He did not want to be pinnacled

Hypernyms (to "pinnacle" is one way to...):

bring up; elevate; get up; lift; raise (raise from a lower to a higher position)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

pinnacle ((architecture) a slender upright spire at the top of a buttress of tower)


 Context examples 


Presently Zambo looked up, waved his hand, and turned to ascend the pinnacle.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

That’s what puts him on a pinnacle in the records of crime.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Thank God! he had reached the highest of those fatal pinnacles upon which his comrade had fallen.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It falls at 20-degrees Taurus, the very pinnacle point in your chart, and will light your solar tenth house of honors, awards, and achievements.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

In the crash of his whole world, with love on the pinnacle, the crash of magazinedom and the dear public was a small crash indeed.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich landowner’s dwelling.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The third showed the pinnacle of an iceberg piercing a polar winter sky: a muster of northern lights reared their dim lances, close serried, along the horizon.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

They congregated round me; the unstained snowy mountain-top, the glittering pinnacle, the pine woods, and ragged bare ravine, the eagle, soaring amidst the clouds—they all gathered round me and bade me be at peace.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Then on hearing his destination, she said, So far away! in a tone of despair that lifted him on to a pinnacle of hope, but the next minute she tumbled him down again by observing, like one entirely absorbed in the matter...

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Accordingly one day my nurse carried me thither, but I may truly say I came back disappointed; for the height is not above three thousand feet, reckoning from the ground to the highest pinnacle top; which, allowing for the difference between the size of those people and us in Europe, is no great matter for admiration, nor at all equal in proportion (if I rightly remember) to Salisbury steeple.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"More haste, less speed." (English proverb)

"Slowly-slowly, even a file can turn a beam into a needle." (Albanian proverb)

"Dwell not upon thy weariness, thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire." (Arabic proverb)

"He who sleeps cannot catch fish." (Corsican proverb)



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