ziggurat means A temple tower of the ancient Mesopotamian valley, having the form of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories. It carries an Arena rating of 1453, earned across 6 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, ziggurat ranks #1,352 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,368 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #1,513 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #1,572 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words.
ziggurat is pronounced /ˈzɪɡʊˌɹæt/.
Why “ziggurat” is a great word
A massive, tiered temple tower of ancient Mesopotamia, constructed as a terraced pyramid of successively receding levels. Learned borrowing from Akkadian 𒁅𒀞𒀪 (ziqqurratum), from the verb zaqaru (“to be high”). Unlike a smooth-sided Egyptian pyramid, a sealed tomb of geometric silence, or a Greek acropolis, a fortified civic complex atop a natural hill, a ziggurat was a stairway for the living—an artificial mountain raised to bring priests closer to the gods. One envisions the sun-baked bulk of its mud-brick core, the long ramp spiraling toward a distant summit shrine, and the scent of incense curling into the immense Mesopotamian sky; it is architecture as vertical pilgrimage, a testament to the profound urge to build a climbable heaven on the flat, unforgiving earth.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Akkadian 𒅆𒂍𒉪 (ziqqurratum).
noun
- A temple tower of the ancient Mesopotamian valley, having the form of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories
- Any building with similar style or shape.e.g.“He works in an old ziggurat of an office building.”
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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