pinnacle

Meanings

Noun

• The highest point.
• A tall, sharp and craggy rock or mountain.
• An all-time high; a point of greatest achievement or success.
• An upright member, generally ending in a small spire, used to finish a buttress, to constitute a part in a proportion, as where pinnacles flank a gable or spire.

Verb

• To place on a pinnacle.
• To build or furnish with a pinnacle or pinnacles.

Origin

• From Middle English, borrowed from Old French pinacle, pinnacle, from Late Latin pinnaculum ("a peak, pinnacle"), double diminutive of Latin pinna ("a pinnacle"); see pin. panache.