capstone

English

Etymology

From Middle English capston; equivalent to cap +‎ stone.

Noun

capstone (plural capstones)

1. Any of the stones making up the top layer of a wall; a coping stone.
2. (figuratively) A crowning achievement, culmination or finishing touch.
   • 1904, Guy Wetmore Carryl, Far from the Maddening Girls, chapter 5

     “You see, I’ve never had a girl friend,” I added, by way of topping the obelisk of silliness with the capstone of fatuity.

   • 1969, NASA, The Post-Apollo Space Program: Directions for the Future

     Success of the Apollo program has been the capstone to a series of significant accomplishments for the United States in space in a broad spectrum of manned and unmanned exploration missions and in the application of space techniques for the benefit of man.

Translations

any of the stones making up the top layer of a wall

• German: Mauerkronenstein m
• Greek: επιστέγασμα (el) n (epistégasma)

• Icelandic: lokasteinn m, höfuðsteinn m
• Manx: clagh vullee f

a crowning achievement

• Danish: krone på værket c
• Dutch: bekroning (nl) f
• German: Höhepunkt (de) m, Krönung (de) f

• Greek: επιστέγασμα (el) n (epistégasma)
• Icelandic: kórónan á verk(ið)
• Italian: coronamento (it) m
• Khmer: សមិទ្ធិផលធំធេង (sâmĭtthĭphlôthumthéng)
• Russian: венец (ru) m (venec)

Synonyms

• copestone

Verb

capstone (third-person singular simple present capstones, present participle capstoning, simple past and past participle capstoned)

1. (transitive) To complete as a crowning achievement; to top off.
   • 2012, Keith Brooke, Strange Divisions and Alien Territories (page 23)

     Capstoning a decade's worth of linked short stories, The Quiet War (2008) was a vivid and tense novel about a solar system sliding into conflict.

2. (transitive, US, military, informal) To train in the Capstone Military Leadership Program.
   • 1981, Army Reserve Magazine (volumes 27-28, page 24)

     “Capstoned” units are now able to train and plan in peacetime with the command with which they will fight in wartime.

See also

• keystone

Anagrams

• caponets, opencast, patonces, potances