capstone means any of the stones making up the top layer of a wall; a coping stone. It carries an Arena rating of 1786, earned across 36 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, capstone ranks #180 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #637 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #939 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #4,464 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
capstone is pronounced /ˈkæpˌstoʊn/.
Why “capstone” is a great word
CAPSTONE — [Noun] A crowning achievement, culmination, or finishing touch; also, the final, topmost stone placed to complete a structure. From Middle English capston, equivalent to cap (in the sense of "top" or "crown") + stone. Unlike a "cornerstone," which implies an initiating, foundational element, or "culmination," which denotes an abstract climax, a capstone is the tangible conclusion that seals and sanctifies the whole. It is the final keystone locking the arch with a muted click, the last polished paragraph of a decade’s dissertation, the apex stone of a pyramid that catches the first and last light of day—the quiet, material proof that a thing is, at last, finished and can now bear the weight of legacy.
Etymology
From Middle English capston; equivalent to cap + stone.
noun
- Any of the stones making up the top layer of a wall; a coping stone.
- A crowning achievement, culmination or finishing touch.e.g.““You see, I’ve never had a girl friend,” I added, by way of topping the obelisk of silliness with the capstone of fatuity.” — 1904, Guy Wetmore Carryl, Far from the Maddening Girls, chapter 5:
verb
- To complete as a crowning achievement; to top off.e.g.“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.” — 2012, Keith Brooke, Strange Divisions and Alien Territories, page 23:
- To train in the Capstone Military Leadership Program.e.g.““Capstoned” units are now able to train and plan in peacetime with the command with which they will fight in wartime.” — 1981, Army Reserve Magazine, volumes 27-28, page 24:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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