pyramidal

English

WOTD – 23 July 2026

Etymology

From Middle English piramidal, piramydale, from Medieval Latin pȳramidālis. By surface analysis, pyramid +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• enPR: pĭ-rămʹĭ-dəl IPA^(key): /pɪˈɹæm.ɪ.dl̩/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • Audio (General American):

    (file)

Adjective

pyramidal (not comparable)

1. (geometry) Pyramid-shaped.
   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, “‘It’s Just the very Biggest Thing in the World’”, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, page 49:

     At one point was an isolated pyramidal rock, crowned by a great tree, which appeared to be separated by a cleft from the main crag.

   • 1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 752:

     Below is the deep abyss of the Lauterbrunnen valley, and at its head a stately semi-circle of mountains, with the pyramidal Lauterbrunnen Breithorn as the centre-piece.

   • 2023 March 22, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Grand buildings on the list... and lost: Greenock Princes Pier”, in RAIL, number 979, page 52:

     Among its attractive features were decorative, tile-hung Italianate towers with pyramidal roofs.

   1. (crystallography) Tetragonal.

Derived terms

• bipyramidal
• dipyramidal
• extrapyramidal
• infrapyramidal
• interpyramidal
• intrapyramidal
• nonpyramidal
• obpyramidal
• parapyramidal
• pyramidal cell
• pyramidalism
• pyramidalize
• pyramidalized
• pyramidally
• pyramidal neuron
• pyramidal number
• pyramidal tract
• subpyramidal
• superpyramidal
• suprapyramidal
• tetrapyramidal

Translations

pyramid-shaped

• Catalan: piramidal
• Czech: pyramidový
• Dutch: piramidaal (nl)
• Finnish: pyramidin muotoinen
• French: pyramidal (fr)
• German: pyramidenförmig (de)
• Greek: πυραμιδικός (el) m (pyramidikós), πυραμιδωτός (el) (pyramidotós), πυραμιδοειδής (el) (pyramidoeidís), πυραμοειδής (el) (pyramoeidís)
• Hungarian: piramidális (hu)
• Italian: piramidale (it)
• Latin: pȳramidālis
• Macedonian: пирамида́лен (piramidálen)
• Polish: piramidalny (pl)
• Portuguese: piramidal (pt)
• Russian: пирамида́льный (ru) (piramidálʹnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: pȉramidālan (sh)
• Spanish: piramidal
• Swedish: pyramidal (sv), pyramidformad
• Tagalog: tagiluin, gunong
• Volapük: piramidik (vo)

Noun

pyramidal (plural pyramidals)

1. (anatomy) One of the carpal bones.

Derived terms

• peripyramidal

See also

• cuneiform

French

Etymology

From pyramide +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pi.ʁa.mi.dal/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

pyramidal (feminine pyramidale, masculine plural pyramidaux, feminine plural pyramidales)

1. pyramidal

Derived terms

• vente pyramidale

Further reading

• “pyramidal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012