pinnacle means A locality in the Weddin council area, central New South Wales, Australia. It carries an Arena rating of 1550, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, pinnacle ranks #2,769 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #3,287 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #3,405 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #3,469 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words.
pinnacle is pronounced /ˈpɪnəkəl/.
Why “pinnacle” is a great word
The highest point of achievement, success, or physical structure. From Middle English, borrowed from Old French pinacle, pinnacle, from Late Latin pinnāculum ("a peak, pinnacle"), from Latin pinna ("a feather, wing, battlement"). Unlike "summit," which anchors itself to the physical geography of mountains, or "climax," which denotes a moment of maximum intensity, a pinnacle suggests a sustained eminence, a crowning elevation that endures. It is the slender stone spire of a Gothic cathedral piercing the clouds, the loneliest and most wind-battered crag on a mountain's face, and the apex of a career held for one fragile, glorious decade. It is a place of pure exposure, where the only possible movement is a descent, and height itself becomes a form of argument against gravity and time.
Etymology
From Middle English, borrowed from Old French pinacle, pinnacle, from Late Latin pinnāculum (“a peak, pinnacle”), from Latin pinna (“a pinnacle”); see pin. Doublet of panache.
name
- A locality in the Weddin council area, central New South Wales, Australia.
noun
- The highest point.
- A tall, sharp and craggy rock or mountain.e.g.“Kings, who remain in many respects the representatives of a vanished world, solitary pinnacles that topple over the rising waste of waters under which the past lies buried.” — 1900, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 55:
- An all-time high; a point of greatest achievement or success.e.g.“The pinnacle of the effort to fix restrictive meanings to a set of terminology can be found in two papers in American Speech by Feinsilver (1979, 1980).” — 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 7:
- 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.e.g.“Some renowned metropolis / With glistering spires and pinnacles around.” — 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished
verb
- To place on a pinnacle.e.g.“And down this vast gulf upon which we were pinnacled the great draught dashed and roared, driving clouds and misty wreaths of vapour before it, till we were nearly blinded, and utterly confused.” — 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
- To build or furnish with a pinnacle or pinnacles.e.g.“The pediment of the Southern Transept is pinnacled, not inelegantly, with a flourished cross” — 1782, Thomas Warton, The History and Antiquities of Kiddington:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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