keystone
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The central building block at the top of an arch or vault.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
keestohnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkistoʊn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
architecture
The central building block at the top of an arch or vault
Something on which other things depend for support.
architecture
The top stone of an arch.
A ghost town in North Dakota.
A native or resident of the American state of Pennsylvania.
verb
transitive
To distort (an image) by projecting it onto a surface at an angle, which for example causes a square to look like a trapezoid.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The central building block at the top of an arch or vault
Used this way, keystone is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use keystone
- “Honesty and hard work are the keystone of our company's success and values.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A Mid-Atlantic state.
A native or resident of Pennsylvania.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: central building block at the top of an arch
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.