What does "menhir" mean?

A single tall standing stone as a monument, especially one dating to prehistoric times.

What is a synonym for "menhir"?

Common synonyms include: standing stone, arch, barrow, bench mark, brass, bust.

Menhir

//ˈmɛnhɪə// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A single tall standing stone as a monument, especially one dating to prehistoric times.
"Near-synonym: orthostat"
2
a tall upright megalith; found primarily in England and northern France wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

standing stone arch barrow bench mark brass bust

Example

More examples

"[N]o time has passed since we lived in caves, grappled with fish at the reedy shore, buried our dead with a song, with red-ochre and pulled up our dolmens, temples and menhirs and standing stones to the glory of some indeterminate god or gods, […]"

Etymology

PIE word *méǵh₂s Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂sder.? Proto-Celtic *maginos Proto-Brythonic *maɣɨnder. Breton maen Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-rós Proto-Celtic *sīros Proto-Brythonic *hirder. Breton hir Breton maen-hirbor. French menhirbor. English menhir Either borrowed from French menhir, or from its etymon Breton maen-hir, compound of maen (“stone”) + hir (“long”). Compare with Welsh maen hir, and Cornish men hir.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.