landmark

American  

[land-mahrk] / ˈlændˌmɑrk /

noun

1. a prominent or conspicuous object on land that serves as a guide, especially to ships at sea or to travelers on a road; a distinguishing landscape feature marking a site or location.

   The post office served as a landmark for locating the street to turn down.

2. something used to mark the boundary of land.

3. a building or other place that is of outstanding historical, aesthetic, or cultural importance, often declared as such and given a special status landmark designation, ordaining its preservation, by some authorizing organization.

4. a significant or historic event, juncture, achievement, etc..

   The court decision stands as a landmark in constitutional law.

   Synonyms:

   benchmark, watershed, milestone

---

verb (used with object)

1. to declare (a building, site, etc.) a landmark.

   a movement to landmark New York's older theaters.

landmark British  

/ ˈlændˌmɑːk /

noun

1. a prominent or well-known object in or feature of a particular landscape

2. an important or unique decision, event, fact, discovery, etc

3. a boundary marker or signpost

---

Other Word Forms

• unlandmarked adjective

Etymology

Origin of landmark

before 1000; Middle English; Old English landmearc. See land, mark ¹

Example Sentences

"Thankfully I was able to get over it and go past the landmark," Hodge said.

From Barron's

As the conference ballooned over the years, NeurIPS became the site of some landmark moments in AI history.

From The Wall Street Journal

The ship itself has become Shanghai’s new must-see landmark, helping the mall where it is based draw roughly 100,000 visitors a day.

From The Wall Street Journal

Earlier this month, the Congolese and Rwandan leaders signed a peace deal in Washington -- but the fall of Uvira threatened to upend that landmark agreement.

From Barron's

Following restoration work which took place last year, Gualtieri introduced a queuing system to prevent large crowds massing around the landmark.

From BBC

Related Words

• marker
• memorial
• milestone
• monument
• museum
• tree