Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Monumental |
MonumentalAdjective1. Relating or belonging to or serving as a monument; "the use of the arch in monumental architecture"; "monumental sculptures". 2. Of outstanding significance; "Einstein's monumental contributions to physics". 3. Imposing in size or bulk or solidity; "massive oak doors"; "Moore's massive sculptures"; "the monolithic proportions of Stalinist architecture"; "a monumental scale". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "monumental" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1602. (references) |
Etymology: Monumental \Mon`u*men"tal\, adjective. [Latin expression monumentalis: compare to the French expression monumental.]. (Websters 1913) |
Synonyms: MonumentalSynonyms: massive (adj), monolithic (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Size | Huge, immense, enormous, mighty; vast, vasty; amplitudinous, stupendous; monster, monstrous, humongous, monumental; elephantine, jumbo, mammoth; gigantic, gigantean, giant, giant like, titanic; prodigious, colossal, Cyclopean, Brobdingnagian, Bunyanesque, Herculean, Gargantuan; infinite. |
Smoothness | Adjective: smooth; polished; Verb: leiodermatous, slick, velutinous; even; level; plane; (flat); sleek, glossy; silken, silky; lanate, downy, velvety; glabrous, slippery, glassy, lubricous, oily, soft, unwrinkled; smooth as glass, smooth as ice, smooth as monumental alabaster, smooth as velvet, smooth as oil; slippery as an eel; woolly; (feathery). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Monumental |
| English words defined with "monumental": Aristide Maillol ♦ Henry Moore, Henry Spencer Moore ♦ Jose Clemente Orozco, Jose Orozco ♦ Lapidary style ♦ Maillol, massive, Mausolean, monolithic, Moore ♦ Orozco ♦ Sacellum, Statue of Liberty ♦ triumphal arch. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "monumental": CONTOUR GRINDER ♦ lathe operator ♦ Monumental City, Monumental Figures, Monumental Inscriptions ♦ Patrick's Monument, profile grinder ♦ SANDBLASTER, STONE, STONECUTTER, MACHINE, STONE-LATHE OPERATOR, surfacer operator, surfacing-machine operator ♦ Zeus. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Monumental" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Albanian (monumental), French (monumental, monumentally), German (epic, monumental, monumentally), Portuguese (monumental), Portuguese Brazilian (monumental), Romanian (colossal, huge, monumental), Spanish (monumental), Swedish (monumental). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | And now I've seen a lot more, gotten to know people, seen what they're capable of and I realize now that they're just soamazingly screwed up! I mean, so really, really screwed up in a monumental fashion! (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) | |
Lyrics | AIN'T IT TRUE IT'S A MONUMENTAL GOOD THING (That's Good; performing artist: Devo) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Cáceres monumental (1971) España monumental (1967) Sinfonía monumental de Asturias (1957) Cáceres la monumental (1949) Barcelona monumental (1946) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References |
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Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Various memorial structures, including monumental Doric column with tripod and flame and temple-form domed circular structure with tripod and flame. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | This week the big store Siegel-Cooper Co. celebrate their first anniversary with magnificent store decorations [and] monumental bargain carnival in all departments Meet me at the fountain. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Richmond, Va. Monumental Church. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Olso, Norway. Monumental head at the Vi-kan exposition. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Masonic, historic and antiquarian. Ruined monumental column, at Quiriguá, Republic of Guatemala, C.A. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Madrid leños! Cataluña os ama ... palabras pronunciadas por el Presidente Companys, en el mítìn celebrado en la Monumental el 14 de marzo de 1937, en ocasión del Dia de Madrid. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Vinton Cerf | A visit to cyberspace is like a visit to the collective consciousness of the world. Alice's journey seems tame by comparison. Our hopes, our dreams, our monumental accomplishments, our frailties, and the everyday business of life is all there to be shared. |
William James | Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | Its two slopes were taken away, for the monumental mound. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | The past several years have witnessed monumental improvements in telephone service in Argentina. (references) | |
Economic History | Ghana | Many Nkrumah-era investments were monumental public works projects and poorly conceived, badly managed agricultural and industrial schemes. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | ZEUS, n. The chief of Grecian gods, adored by the Romans as Jupiter and by the modern Americans as God, Gold, Mob and Dog. Some explorers who have touched upon the shores of America, and one who professes to have penetrated a considerable distance to the interior, have thought that these four names stand for as many distinct deities, but in his monumental work on Surviving Faiths, Frumpp insists that the natives are monotheists, each having no other god than himself, whom he worships under many sacred names. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Monumental" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 97.37% of the time. "Monumental" is used about 380 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 97.37% | 370 | 14,662 |
| Noun (proper) | 2.63% | 10 | 111,207 |
| Total | 100.00% | 380 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "monumental": monumental inscription ♦ monumental mason ♦ monumental masonry ♦ monumental sculptures. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "monumental": monumental-size. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "monumental"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | monumental, madhështor (brilliant, dignified, distinguished, exalted, gorgeous, grandiose, imperial, imposing, impressive, kingly, lordly, luxurious, magnificent, majestic, olympian, palatial, princely, proud, royal, spectacular, splendid, stately, sublime, superb). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | هائل (astronomic, astronomical, awful, colossal, enormous, formidable, gargantuan, gigantesque, hugely, immense, massive, mighty, monstrous, mountainous, outsize, oversize, portentous, prodigious, rip roaring, stupendous, terrific, thumping, thundering, titanic, towering, tremendous, whopping, wicked, wide), نصبي, تذكاري (commemorative, honorary, memorial), ضخم (astronomic, astronomical, awful, big, bulking, bulky, bull, colossal, colossus, considerable, distend, elephantine, enormous, exaggerate, extend, exuberant, fat, gargantuan, ghastly, giant, gigantic, goodly, grand, great, handsome, heavy, hefty, heroic, huge, hulking, husky, immense, intense, jumbo, large, leviathan, liberal, mammoth, mass, massive, mighty, monstrous, mountainous, outsize, oversize, palatial, phenomenal, powerful, prodigious, proud, round, royal, sizable, smart, strapping, strong, stupendous, sublime, swingeing, tall, tidy, titan, titanic, towering, tremendous, vast, voluminous, whacking, whopping), بارز (beetle, conspicuous, distinct, distinguished, duel, eminent, featured, fence, great, in the first flight, lofty, memorable, noble, notable, noticeable, outstanding, pointed, profile, prognathous, projecting, prominent, protruding, protuberant, remarkable, salient, signal, striking, uncommon). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | величествен (awesome, grand, imperial, jovian, kingly, lofty, magnificent, majestic, noble, olympian, proud, regal, royal, sculpturesque, stately, statuesque, sublime), отнасящ се за паметници, огромен (enormous, formidable, gargantuan, giantlike, herculean, howling, huge, mammoth, mighty, mountainous, oceanic, oversize, planetary, portentous, prodigious, slashing, super, terrible, terrific, thumping, thundering, tremendous, unwieldy, vast, walloping, whacking, whaling, whopping), монументален, значителен (appreciable, considerable, goodly, handsome, important, major, marked, respectable, round, sensible, serious, significant, smart, symbolic, symbolical, tidy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 纪念建筑物, 極為龐大 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | monumentální, velkolepý (ambitious, awe inspiring, gorgeous, grand, magnificent, rich, splendid), kolosální (colossal, enormous, huge, monstrous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | monumentaal. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | monumenta. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | monumental (monumentally). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frisian | monumintaal. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | gewaltig (colossal, enormous, epic, formidable, grand, heroic, huge, hugely, immense, massive, mightily, mighty, mountainous, mountainously, portentous, powerful, prodigious, ravenous, resounding, rude, shattering, towering, tremendous, vast, vastly, violent, walloping), ganz erheblich. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | μνημειώδησ, μνημειακόσ, πελώριοσ (gigantic, huge, mammoth, thumping), επιμνημόσυνοσ (memorial). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | מו ומ טלי, של מצב". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | nagyszabású (colossal, large, on the large side, palatial), monumentális. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | monumentale. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 金字" (monumental work, pyramid), 回天 (monumental task). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | き"じとう (monumental work, pyramid), かいて" (monumental task, opening of shop, revolution, rotation, turning). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 기념비. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | lhiaghtagh (sepulchral), leacoil, feer vooar (colossal, giant, gigantic, massive, vast, whopping), cooinaghtyn (commemorate, recollect, remember, remembrance). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | onumentalmay monumental. (various references) monumental. (various references) monumental (colossal, huge), uriaş (astronomic, astronomical, colossal, colossus, elephantine, enormous, giant, giantlike, gigantic, goliath, huge, immense, infinite, mammoth, mite, monster, mountainous, ogre, prodigious, strapping, thumping, vast), fenomenal (astonishingly, extraordinary, marvellous, phenomenal, phenomenally, prodigious, remarkably, wonderfully), enorm (astonishing, awful, colossal, enormous, frightful, huge, hugely, hugeous, immense, immensely, infinite, massive, monstrous, mountainous, prodigious, terrible, thundering, tremendous, vast, whopping). (various references) необычайный (unusual), монументальный. (various references) monumentalan. (various references) monumental. (various references) monumental, minnes- (commemorative, memorial), storslagen (awe inspiring, awesome, epic, grand, grandiose, heavy, munificencent, munificent, olympian), kolossal (colossal, enormous, huge, immense, jumbo, mammoth, mighty, sweeping, thumping, tremendous, whacking), enorm (enormous, howling, huge, immense, monster, monstrous, mountainous, prodigious, super-duper, supreme, terrific, thumping). (various references) heybetli (ample, baronial, dreadfull, formidable, grandiose, imposing, majestic, redoubtable, solemn, stately, tremendous), devasa (colossal, gargantuan, giant-like, gigantic), anıtsal. (various references) monumental (r). (various references) що увічню" пам'ять, колосальний (colossal, decuman, huge, ocean-wide, pyramidal, stupendous, super-duper, terrific), монументальний. (various references) lạ thường (bang-up, extraordinary, novel, supernormal), bất hủ kỳ lạ, đ" sộ (huge). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "monumental": monumentalities, monumentality, monumentalize, monumentalized, monumentalizes, monumentalizing, monumentally. (additional references) | |
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"Monumental" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Monumenta, monummental, Munimenta. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "monumental" (pronounced mÄ'nyume"ntul, mÄ'nyuwme"ntul , or mÄ'nyume"nul) |
| 7 | -u m e" n t u l | detrimental, elemental, experimental, fundamental, incremental, instrumental, ornamental, regimental, sentimental, supplemental, temperamental, unsentimental. |
| 6 | -m e" n t u l | compartmental, developmental, environmental, intergovernmental, judgmental, mental, nongovernmental. |
| 5 | -e" n t u l | accidental, coincidental, continental, dental, gentle, incidental, intercontinental, lentil, occidental, oriental, parental, rental, transcendental, transcontinental. |
| 4 | -n t u l | Cantle, consonantal, disgruntle, dismantle, frontal, governmental, horizontal, infantile, lintel, mantel, mantle, periodontal, prefrontal, quintal, Wintle. |
| 3 | -t u l | acquittal, anecdotal, artiodactyl, battle, beetle, belittle, betel, bicoastal, bottle, brattle, Bristol, brittle, brutal, butyl, capital, Capitol, cattle, chattel, chortle, coastal, committal, congenital, crustal, crystal, digital, distal, ductile, embattle, entitle, extramarital, fatal, fertile, fetal, fractal, futile, genital, glottal, hospital, hostel, hostile, hurtle, immortal, immotile, infertile, kettle, Kittel, Kittle, little, marital, metal, mettle, mortal, motile, Myrtle, Natal, neonatal, nettle, noncommittal, nonfatal, nonvolatile, occipital, orbital, parietal, pedestal, petal, Pistil, pistol, pivotal, portal, postal, postnatal, Pottle, prattle, premarital, prenatal, projectile, rattle, rebuttal, recital, rectal, resettle, scuttle, settle, shuttle, skeletal, skittle, societal, spittle, startle, subtitle, subtle, tactile, tattle, throttle, title, tittle, tootle, total, transmittal, turtle, unsettle, unsubtle, varietal, vegetal, versatile, vestal, vital, vittle, volatile, Whittle. |
| 6 | -m e" n t u l | compartmental, detrimental, developmental, elemental, environmental, experimental, fundamental, incremental, instrumental, intergovernmental, judgmental, mental, nongovernmental, ornamental, regimental, sentimental, supplemental, temperamental, unsentimental. |
| 5 | -e" n t u l | accidental, coincidental, continental, dental, gentle, incidental, intercontinental, lentil, occidental, oriental, parental, rental, transcendental, transcontinental. |
| 4 | -n t u l | Cantle, consonantal, disgruntle, dismantle, frontal, governmental, horizontal, infantile, lintel, mantel, mantle, periodontal, prefrontal, quintal, Wintle. |
| 3 | -t u l | acquittal, anecdotal, artiodactyl, battle, beetle, belittle, betel, bicoastal, bottle, brattle, Bristol, brittle, brutal, butyl, capital, Capitol, cattle, chattel, chortle, coastal, committal, congenital, crustal, crystal, digital, distal, ductile, embattle, entitle, extramarital, fatal, fertile, fetal, fractal, futile, genital, glottal, hospital, hostel, hostile, hurtle, immortal, immotile, infertile, kettle, Kittel, Kittle, little, marital, metal, mettle, mortal, motile, Myrtle, Natal, neonatal, nettle, noncommittal, nonfatal, nonvolatile, occipital, orbital, parietal, pedestal, petal, Pistil, pistol, pivotal, portal, postal, postnatal, Pottle, prattle, premarital, prenatal, projectile, rattle, rebuttal, recital, rectal, resettle, scuttle, settle, shuttle, skeletal, skittle, societal, spittle, startle, subtitle, subtle, tactile, tattle, throttle, title, tittle, tootle, total, transmittal, turtle, unsettle, unsubtle, varietal, vegetal, versatile, vestal, vital, vittle, volatile, Whittle. |
| 5 | -m e" n u l | departmental. |
| 4 | -e" n u l | fennel, kennel. |
| 3 | -n u l | abdominal, aberrational, aboriginal, additional, adrenal, anal, annal, annul, Arsenal, atonal, attitudinal, autumnal, binational, biphenyl, cantonal, Cardinal, carnal, channel, coeducational, collisional, Colonel, communal, compositional, computational, concessional, conditional, confessional, conformational, confrontational, congregational, congressional, connotational, constitutional, conventional, conversational, cornel, correctional, criminal, Darnel, delusional, denominational, depositional, devotional, diagonal, dimensional, directional, diurnal, divisional, doctrinal, duodenal, dysfunctional, educational, emotional, empanel, erosional, eternal, exceptional, external, factional, faunal, fictional, final, flannel, fluxional, foundational, fractional, fraternal, functional, funnel, gastrointestinal, generational, gravitational, hexagonal, hormonal, Hymnal, impanel, impersonal, improvisational, infernal, informational, inspirational, institutional, instructional, intentional, intergenerational, internal, international, interpersonal, intestinal, investigational, Invitational, irrational, journal, jurisdictional, juvenile, kernel, latitudinal, longitudinal, luminal, marginal, maternal, medicinal, monoclonal, monsoonal, morainal, motivational, multinational, national, navigational, nocturnal, nominal, noncriminal, nonprofessional, nontraditional, nutritional, obsessional, occasional, occupational, octagonal, operational, optional, organizational, original, panel, paternal, penal, personal, phenomenal, polygonal, polyvinyl, processional, professional, promotional, proportional, provisional, rational, recreational, regional, relational, renal, representational, retinal, rotational, seasonal, sectional, semifinal, seminal, sensational, sentinel, shrapnel, signal, situational, spinal, subliminal, superregional, supranational, terminal, tonal, traditional, transformational, transitional, transnational, tribunal, tunnel, unconditional, unconstitutional, unconventional, unemotional, unintentional, unprofessional, untraditional, vaginal, venal, vernal, Vinal, vinyl, virginal, vocational. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-l-m-m-n-n-o-t-u" | |
-2 letters: lomentum, monument, nonmetal, noumenal, unmolten. | |
-3 letters: annulet, automen, lomenta, momenta, montane, nonmeat, noumena, omental, omentum, telamon, tonneau, unmeant. | |
-4 letters: amount, amulet, eluant, etalon, lament, loment, lunate, mantel, mantle, maumet, melton, mental, mentum, molten, moment, muleta, nounal, omenta, outman, tolane, tunnel, untame. | |
-5 letters: alone, ament, amole, anent, annul, anole, atone, laten, leant, leman, lemma, lemon. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-l-m-m-n-n-o-t-u" | |
+2 letters: monumentally. | |
+3 letters: intercommunal, monumentality, monumentalize. | |
+4 letters: monumentalized, monumentalizes. | |
+5 letters: monumentalities, monumentalizing, uncomplimentary. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)4D 6F 6E 75 6D 65 6E 74 61 6C |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-- --- -. ..- -- . -. - .- .-.. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001101 01101111 01101110 01110101 01101101 01100101 01101110 01110100 01100001 01101100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)M o n u m e n t a l |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)004D 006F 006E 0075 006D 0065 006E 0074 0061 006C |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)47818087797180866778 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Orthography 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
