Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A tall, four-sided shaft of stone, usually tapered and monolithic, that rises to a pointed pyramidal top.
- n. Printing The dagger sign (†), used especially as a reference mark. Also called dagger, obelus.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A tapering shaft of rectangular plan, generally finished with a pyramidal apex. The apex in the typical obelisks of ancient Egypt was sheathed with a bronze cap. The proportion of the thickness to the height is nearly the same in all Egyptian obelisks — that is, between one ninth and one tenth; and the thickness at the top is never less than half nor greater than three fourths of the thickness at the base. Egypt abounded with obelisks, which were set up to record the honors or triumphs of the kings; and many have been removed thence, in both ancient and modern times. The two largest were erected by Sesostris in Heliopolis; the height of these was 78 feet; they were removed to Rome by Augustus. Two obelisks in Alexandria, known as Cleopatra's Needles, were offered by Mehemet Ali to Great Britain and France respectively. The French chose instead the Luxor obelisk, which was erected in the Place de la Concorde in Paris in 1833. That chosen by the British lay prostrate in the sand until it was removed and erected on the Thames embankment in London, in 1878, by private enterprise. Its height is 68 feet 5½ inches, and its dimensions at the base are 7 feet 10½ inches by 7 feet 5 inches. The companion obelisk was afterward presented to the city of New York, where it now stands in Central Park, having been transported thither in 1880 by private enterprise.
- n. In printing and writing, a sign resembling a small dagger (), and hence also called a dagger. It was formerly employed in editions of ancient authors to point out and censure spurious or doubtful passages, and for like purposes, but is now generally used as a reference-mark to direct the reader to a marginal note or foot-note on the same page, in dictionaries to distinguish obsolete words, or before dates in biographical or historical works of reference to indicate the year of death. The double obelisk is a mark of reference of the form ‡.
Wiktionary
- n. A tall, square, tapered, stone monolith topped with a pyramidal point, frequently used as a monument.
- n. printing The dagger sign (†), especially when used as a reference mark.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An upright, four-sided pillar, gradually tapering as it rises, and terminating in a pyramid called pyramidion. It is ordinarily monolithic. Egyptian obelisks are commonly covered with hieroglyphic writing from top to bottom.
- n. (Print.) A mark of reference; -- called also
dagger [†]. See Dagger, n., 2. - v. To mark or designate with an obelisk.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a character used in printing to indicate a cross reference or footnote
- n. a stone pillar having a rectangular cross section tapering towards a pyramidal top
Etymologies
- 1569. From Middle French obelisque, from Latin obeliscus ("obelisk"), from Ancient Greek ὀβελίσκος (obeliskos), diminutive of ὀβελός (obelos, "needle"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin obeliscus, from Greek obeliskos, diminutive of obelos, a spit, obelisk. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Well, moving the obelisk is something spectacular at that time, and even attracting people.”
“The great obelisk is but one of the many cases in point.”
“The colossi are of black granite; the obelisk is of red, highly polished, and covered on all four sides with superb hieroglyphs in three vertical columns.”
“On the other side of the water, the New York Sun called the obelisk "terrific humbug," and "only a broken, decaying and disfigured old block of stone.”
The Wall Street Journal: 'Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights'
“Today, the obelisk is a common sight in cemeteries across America, standing as memorials to the deceased.”
“Our prime minister tells us that the return of the obelisk is a Tigrian affair, not the business of us southern people," says Alemayehu, an ethnic Oromo who works for a non-governmental organization that helps the rural poor outside the capital, Addis Ababa.”
Special Report: The Axum Obelisk Returns, but Some Still Grumble
“It was so far off her personal awareness sensors that the obelisk was the first artifact Abramowitz had ever physically encountered from the planet, an admission she made somewhat sheepishly considering her role as a cultural specialist attached to the Starfleet Corps of Engineers.”
“The obelisk is the symbol of the perpetual past, holding in its changeless unity, as on its carved sides, the memories of former ages; the fountain is the symbol of the perpetual present, ever changing, ever new.”
“And hence the obelisk is the most suitable of all forms to indicate in our cemeteries the glorious truth of the resurrection, life rising victorious out of the transitory condition of death.”
“The obelisk is the oldest Egyptian one known; it is of red granite, sixty-six feet in height, although it seems lower on account of the mass of debris at the base, and is inscribed with hieroglyphics.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘obelisk’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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LIT - Ulysses - key words and phrases
money cowrie, bedraggle, omphalos, ineluctable, postprandial, bladderwrack, modality barnacle..., loofah, shipworm, cither, embattle, Malachi and 503 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
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jaydrox's list
Mah list!
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The Red Pyramid
SAS Gr. 7 EAL Book Read
agitated, boomerang, curator, decipher, ominous, amulet, vague, relic, hieroglyphics, obelisk, linger, hereditary and 37 more...
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♥
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dandy's list
favourite words
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ICE
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Just 'cause I like 'em, O
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Nightbloom's List
adumbrate, beatific, blandiloquent, caliginous, champagne, anointed, chatoyant, chiaroscuro, diffuse, dulcet, ebullient, efflorescence and 94 more...
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ADW1
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Dain's Words
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cloudjuice's Words
schadenfreude, sordid, promulgate, erratic, erroneous, amalgamate, sesquipedalian, incongruous, psychosis, etymology, simulacrum, serendipity and 988 more...
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NakedFringe's Words
masticate, chamber, orchid, mandolin, yellow, pomegranate, conundrum, paradox, gyrate, calamitous, opalescent, cacophony and 533 more...
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words i love
mahogany, serenity, quell, requiem, parhelion, echo, surfacing, ethereal, melodic, vivid, sirenic, sprightly and 122 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for obelisk.

sionnach I mean this specific obelisk Aug 14, 2008