pinnacle

English

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French pinacle, pinnacle, from Late Latin pinnaculum (“a peak, pinnacle”), double diminutive of Latin pinna (“a pinnacle”); see pin.

Noun

pinnacle (plural pinnacles)

1. The highest point.
2. A tall, sharp and craggy rock or mountain.
3. (figuratively) An all-time high; a point of greatest achievement or success.
4. (architecture) An upright member, generally ending in a small spire, used to finish a buttress, to constitute a part in a proportion, as where pinnacles flank a gable or spire.
   • Milton

     Some renowned metropolis / With glistering spires and pinnacles around.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:apex

Antonyms

• nadir

Translations

highest point

• Armenian: գագաթնակետ (hy) (gagat’naket)
• Czech: vrchol (cs)
• Dutch: top (nl) m, spits (nl) m
• Finnish: huippu (fi), huippukohta (fi)
• French: cime (fr)

• German: Gipfel (de) m
• Italian: pinnacolo (it) m, cima (it) f, picco (it) m, somma (it) f
• Russian: пик (ru) (pik) m, высшая (ru) (vysšaja) точка (ru) (točka) f
• Serbo-Croatian: vrh (sh), vrhunac (sh)

tall, sharp and craggy rock or mountain

• Dutch: spits (nl) m
• French: pic (fr)
• German: Felsnadel f, Felsturm m
• Russian: остроконечная (ru) (ostrokonečnaja) скала (ru) (skala) f

• Serbo-Croatian: šiljak (sh), vrhunac (sh), vrh (sh)

figuratively: all-time high

• Dutch: toppunt (nl) n

See also

• summit
• peak
• apex

Verb

pinnacle (third-person singular simple present pinnacles, present participle pinnacling, simple past and past participle pinnacled)

1. to put something on a pinnacle
2. to build or furnish with a pinnacle or pinnacles

   (Can we find and add a quotation of T. Warton to this entry?)

Translations

put something on a pinnacle

• Arabic: يضع شيء على قمة عالية

• Finnish: asettaa huipulle

External links

• pinnacle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• pinnacle in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

• pannicle