monolith

Meanings

Noun

• A large, single block of stone which is a natural feature; or a block of stone or other similar material used in architecture and sculpture, especially one carved into a monument in ancient times.
• Anything massive, uniform, and unmovable, especially a towering and impersonal cultural, political, or social organization or structure.
• A substrate having many tiny channels that is cast as a single piece, which is used as a stationary phase for chromatography, as a catalytic surface, etc.
• A dead tree whose height and size have been reduced by breaking off or cutting its branches.

Verb

• To create (something) as, or convert (one or more things) into, a monolith.

Origin

• The noun is borrowed from French monolithe, from Middle French monolythe , and from their etymon Latin monolithus, from Ancient Greek μονόλιθος, from μονο- (from μόνος, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mey-) + λίθος; analysable as mono- + -lith. The English word is cognate with German monolith.
• The verb is derived from the noun.