Obelisk
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A tall, square, tapered, stone monolith topped with a pyramidal point, frequently used as a monument.
""The clay envelope is Sumerian. It is from the third millennium B.C. It was dug up from the city of Eridu is southern Iraq. The black stele or obelisk is the Code of Hammurabi, which dates from about 1750 B.C."
- 2 a stone pillar having a rectangular cross section tapering towards a pyramidal top wordnet
- 3 Synonym of obelus.; A symbol resembling a horizontal line (–), sometimes together with one or two dots (for example, ⨪ or ÷), which was used in ancient manuscripts and texts to mark a word or passage as doubtful or spurious, or redundant. historical
- 4 a character used in printing to indicate a second cross reference or footnote when the asterisk has already been used wordnet
- 5 Synonym of obelus.; A dagger symbol (†), which is used in printed matter as a reference mark to refer the reader to a footnote, marginal note, etc.; beside a person's name to indicate that the person is deceased; or beside a date to indicate that it is a person's death date.
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- 6 An RNA structure similar to a viroid, with a rod-like secondary structure, which comprises its own phylogenetic group.
- 1 To adopt the obelisk posture; to point the tip of the abdomen towards the sun.
"Dragonflies that spend the day in full sun may obelisk to minimize the sunlight striking the body. An obelisking dragonfly looks like it's doing a headstand[…]"
Example
More examples"The Lateran Obelisk is the largest standing Egyptian obelisk in the world."
Etymology
From Middle French obelisque, from Latin obeliscus (“obelisk”), from Ancient Greek ὀβελίσκος (obelískos), diminutive of ὀβελός (obelós, “needle”). Compare obelus.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.