Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The fortified height or citadel of an ancient Greek city.
- n. A raised area holding a building or cluster of buildings, especially in a pre-Columbian city.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The citadel of a Grecian city, usually the site of the original settlement, and situated on an eminence commanding the surrounding country. When the city spread beyond its earlier limits, the acropolis was generally cleared of its inhabitants and held sacred to the divinities of the state, whose temples were upon it. The acropolis of Athens contained the most splendid productions of Greek art, the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, and the Propylæa.
Wiktionary
- n. A promontory (usually fortified with a citadel) forming the hub of many Grecian cities, and around which many were built for defensive purposes before and during the classical period; compare Acropolis.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The upper part, or the citadel, of a Grecian city; especially, the citadel of Athens.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the citadel in ancient Greek towns
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek ἀκρόπολις (akropolis), from ἄκρος (akros, "topmost”, “tip”, “summit") + πόλις (polis, "city"). (Wiktionary)
- Greek akropolis : akron, top; see acromegaly + polis, city. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I presume the city then occupied the same position as at present, on a plain surrounding the rocky acropolis, which is so striking and picturesque a feature as to justify the enthusiasm of the”
“While, therefore, the majority of the Indian workmen were kept employed at the cemeteries, Kopeli, the Snake chief, a man in whom I have great confidence, was assigned to the excavation of a series of rooms at the highest point of the ruin, previously referred to as the acropolis”
“The one thing I remembered about the acropolis was the story of the siege by the Persians.”
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“Below the complex of the acropolis is the theater of Dionysis and the Odeum which still has summer concerts, though not at this time.”
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“For if we abolish the acropolis which is in the city, can we abolish also that of fever, and that of beautiful women?”
“Can we, in a word, abolish the acropolis which is in us and cast out the tyrants within us, whom we have dally over us, sometimes the same tyrants, at other times different tyrants?”
“The aim of this year's mapping activities is to supplement the topographical and archaeological map of Tepe Düzen with observations on the south slopes of the Zincirli Tepe (the "acropolis" of the site), and the area west and south of the zone we mapped last year.”
“During this week, we discovered a third defense system down slope from the fortification wall, part from the normal city wall and the circuit wall surrounding the Zencirli Tepe (the "acropolis" with a height of 1784 m.a.s.l.).”
“-- The discussion on twin cities is intended to draw attention to its West Asian parallels, the "acropolis" or "ark" city, as well as to the theories on the difference between Western and Asian cities (M. Weber) and the specific type of cities in "dual societies" (H. Boeke).p. 34: This is a modified form of the H. Shih theory.”
“-- Almost every Greek city has its own formidable citadel, its own "acropolis," -- for "citadel" is really all this word conveys.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘acropolis’.
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Daily
Daily Vocab List
lull, pious, lurid, objurgate, insurgent, lewd, patio, onus, lampoon, geisha, larceny, maim and 206 more...
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kingrat47's Words
procrustean, devolution, cacophony, hippopotamus, crunch, beware, chortled, sibilant, subtle, undermine, acromegaly, acropolis and 645 more...
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Tulip Names I
No rhyme or reason other than that I like the names. :-) For more flower fun, see these lists:
Rose words by mollusque
Rose varieties by mollusque
Tulip Names II: You Know ...abbey dream, abbey road, abodement, abra, abra elite, academician tstisin, acapulco, ace of diamonds, acropolis, ad hoc, adamo, addis and 597 more...
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acro-
pointed; highest; extremity
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nfk9595's Words
magnetohydrodynamics, bovine, epistle, gargantuan, kerfuffle, verbiage, morose, coup de main, elan, achtung, uber, verboten and 497 more...
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Traveling the world!
byzantine, acropolis, pagoda, minaret, rupee, compass, pilgrimage, origami, kami, ashram, arabesque, mediterranean
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word
s i like.
schadenfreude, maritime, doppelganger, dainty, widdershins, jabberwocky, hazmat, biohazard, unfortunate, fortune, hyperbole, delirious and 45 more...
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