pedestal
/ˈpɛdɪstəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.35 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A casting secured to the frame of a truck of a railcar and forming a jaw for holding a journal box.
noun
A pillow block; a low housing.
noun
An iron socket, or support, for the foot of a brace at the end of a truss where it rests on a pier.
noun
a pedestal coil, group of connected straight pipes arranged side by side and one above another, used in a radiator.
noun
A ground-level housing for a passive connection point for underground cables.
noun
The measured value when no input signal is given.
Example Sentences
- "The table and two base pedestals cost more than $4,000. The pedestals are described as having “hand applied ebonized inlay with bell flowers topped by hand carved scrolls and a fluted column.”"
- "The state reached a deal with the city to remove the 40-foot granite pedestal the Lee statue sat on for more than a century."
- "He has put his mother on a pedestal. You can't say a word against her."
- "It’s an old, old story. We’ve all placed people on pedestals, and then, almost inevitably, they let us down. They violate our trust. They betray us. They fall off the pedestal, or we remove them."
- "But India is also where the Mahatma may have fallen furthest from the pedestal."
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French piédestal, itself borrowed from Italian piedistallo (literally “foot stand”). Spelling influenced by Latin pēs, pedem.