Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A wide, low-pitched gable surmounting the façade of a building in the Grecian style.
- n. A triangular element, similar to or derivative of a Grecian pediment, used widely in architecture and decoration.
- n. Geology A broad, gently sloping rock surface at the base of a steeper slope, often covered with alluvium, formed primarily by erosion.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In architecture, a low triangular part resembling a gable, crowning the fronts of buildings in the Greek styles, especially over porticos. It is surrounded by a cornice, and its flat recessed field or tympanum is often ornamented with sculptures in relief or in the round. Among such sculptures are found the finest remains of Greek art—the pediment-figures of the Parthenon, by Phidias. In the debased Roman and Renaissance styles the same name is given to gables similarly placed, even though not triangular in form, but semicircular, elliptical, or interrupted, and also to small finishing members of any of these shapes over doors or windows. In the architecture of the middle ages small gables and triangular decorations over openings, niches, etc., are often called
pediments . These generally have the angle at the apex much more acute than the corresponding gable or gablet in Roman architecture, which, on its part, is markedly higher in proportion, or less obtuse-angled at the summit, than Hellenic pediments. See also cuts underacroterium , octastyle, and pedimented. - n. Hence In decorative art, any member of similar outline, forming a triangular or segmental ornament rising above a horizontal band, as in ironwork; such a member above the opening of a screen or the like: it may be entirely open and consist of light scrollwork only.
Wiktionary
- n. architecture A classical architectural element consisting of a triangular section or gable found above the horizontal superstructure (entablature) which lies immediately upon the columns; fronton
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Arch.) Originally, in classical architecture, the triangular space forming the gable of a simple roof; hence, a similar form used as a decoration over porticoes, doors, windows, etc.; also, a rounded or broken frontal having a similar position and use. See temple.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a triangular gable between a horizontal entablature and a sloping roof
Etymologies
- Alteration (influenced by Latin pēs, ped-, foot) of earlier perement, probably alteration of pyramid. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Supporting the pediment were a pair of beautiful, naked women—caryatids, she remembered from college art class—who, like Joss, accepted their fate with unblinking stoicism.”
“The beauty of the marble from which stones and columns were cut might have seemed enough, but the builders carved groups of figures in the three-cornered space (called the pediment) in front between the roof and the stones resting upon the columns.”
“Above the pediment is a canopy with the Virgin and”
“It is crowned with a pediment, which is too large for its span.”
“For them the misty goal is not even in sight; the vale is bounded by huge pine-clad precipices, wreathed with snow and crowned with cloud; but to Meyrick it does appear quite definitely what we are, and as for the end, well, the avenue of the world seems to lead up to a neat classical building with pillars and a pediment, that is called the temple of reason and common-sense.”
“In the pediment is the usual representation of the”
Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3 France and the Netherlands, Part 1
“Corinthian columns, surmounted by a half-circular pediment, which is richly ornamented.”
Paris: With Pen and Pencil Its People and Literature, Its Life and Business
“In the angle of the pediment is the figure of an angel greeting the new-born spirit, and raising his hand, points to the place prepared for him in heaven.”
Paris: With Pen and Pencil Its People and Literature, Its Life and Business
“Capitol a group apparently prepared for a pediment, which is by no means mean.”
“It is crowned with a pediment, which is too high for its span.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pediment’.
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pustule, purulence, pushful, purser, purpureal, putative, purpure, purpresture, purloin, purline, purlieu, purlicue and 1766 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Hence
Words with definitions that have a "hence" in them.
hanger, Deet, tripe, spindlelegs, fiddle, store, pluck, snap, villain, link, comedy, particular and 410 more...
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A Time of Gifts
lambent, gonfalon, ait, eyrie, haberdashery, belfry, capstan, spinney, barbican, hobnail, wharf, waterlogged and 64 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes
Words I had to look up, or I liked, from Robert Louis Stevenson's travelogue 'Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes'.
pediment, drugget, raiment, scurrilous, stripling, distaff, calumniate, valise, stolid, appurtenance, spencer, vaticination and 42 more...
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structures
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Castles and Keeps
Shamelessly ripped off from this site and others (to be named hereinafter). (Fair warning: for my own edification, I may add definitions/comments from the site, but you might want to just go there ...
abutment, adulterine, allure, angle-spur, apse, arbalest, arbalestier, arbalist, arcade, arch, armoury, arrow slit and 410 more...
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artoparts's Words
illation, finite, edify, abide, abrade, vouch, amiss, vociferate, perusing, techantiquery, rigamarole, holon and 615 more...
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Mélange
doggerel, odsbodkins, platitudinous, ennui, strappleberry, stygian, inchoate, incipient, deleterious, gnarled, troglodyte, interlocutor and 96 more...
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Test-words
rarefy, occlude, bolt, lambaste, career, careen, largesse, enormity, neologism, quizzical, sibyl, euphony and 105 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Tory's First Wordie List
perambulate, mumpsimus, euphoric, peripatetic, mellifluous, soporific, neologism, nihilism, nepotism, effervescent, lascivious, esoteric and 217 more...
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MsHalston's Words
theoretically, insufferable, apolitico, milquetoast, egregious, aplomb, elan, fraught, flummox, befrocked, moll, molten and 605 more...
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Luck in the Shadows
Words and phrases from Lynn Flewelling's book, Luck in the Shadows.
belly, barbican, pediment, withers, hirsute, oriel, tabard, telesm, thaumaturgy, switch, spargetaction, towheaded and 125 more...
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You May Tell Yourself, "This Is Not M...
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cornice, balustrade, dado, bargeboard, buttress, clerestory, crenellation, cupola, corbel, dentil, vergeboard, quatrefoil and 101 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pediment.

leafar trouvé grace a google translate working on fronton Mar 12, 2008