monument: Meaning and Definition of

mon•u•ment

Pronunciation: (n.mon'yu-muntv.mon'yu-ment&sec), [key]
— n.
  1. something erected in memory of a person, event, etc., as a building, pillar, or statue: the Washington Monument.
  2. any building, megalith, etc., surviving from a past age, and regarded as of historical or archaeological importance.
  3. any enduring evidence or notable example of something: a monument to human ingenuity.
  4. an exemplar, model, or personification of some abstract quality, esp. when considered to be beyond question: a monument of middle-class respectability.
  5. an area or a site of interest to the public for its historical significance, great natural beauty, etc., preserved and maintained by a government.
  6. a written tribute to a person, esp. a posthumous one.
  7. an object, as a stone shaft, set in the ground to mark the boundaries of real estate or to mark a survey station.
  8. a person considered as a heroic figure or of heroic proportions: He became a monument in his lifetime.
    1. Obs.a tomb; sepulcher.
    2. a statue.
—v.t.
  1. to build a monument or monuments to; commemorate: to monument the nation's war dead.
  2. to build a monument on: to monument a famous site.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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