pyramid
Americannoun
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pyramids
plural
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Architecture.
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(in ancient Egypt) a quadrilateral masonry mass having smooth, steeply sloping sides meeting at an apex, used as a tomb.
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(in ancient Egypt and pre-Columbian Central America) a quadrilateral masonry mass, stepped and sharply sloping, used as a tomb or a platform for a temple.
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anything of such form.
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a number of persons or things arranged or heaped up in this manner.
a pyramid of acrobats; a pyramid of boxes.
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a system or structure resembling a pyramid, as in hierarchical form.
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Geometry. a solid having a polygonal base, and triangular sides that meet in a point.
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Crystallography. any form the planes of which intersect all three of the axes.
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Anatomy, Zoology. any of various parts or structures of pyramidal form.
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a tree pruned or trained to grow in conical form.
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(used with a singular verb) pyramids, a form of pocket billiards for two or four players in which 15 colored balls, initially placed in the form of a triangle, are pocketed with one white cue ball.
verb (used without object)
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pyramids,
present (3rd person singular)
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pyramided,
past participle, past
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pyramiding
present participle
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to take, or become disposed in, the form of a pyramid.
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Stock Exchange. (in speculating on margin) to enlarge one's operations in a series of transactions, as on a continued rise or decline in price, by using profits in transactions not yet closed, and consequently not yet in hand, as margin for additional buying or selling in the next transaction.
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to increase gradually, as with the completion of each phase.
Our problems are beginning to pyramid.
verb (used with object)
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pyramids,
present (3rd person singular)
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pyramided,
past participle, past
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pyramiding
present participle
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to arrange in the form of a pyramid.
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to raise or increase (costs, wages, etc.) by adding amounts gradually.
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to cause to increase at a steady and progressive rate.
New overseas markets have pyramided the company's profits.
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Stock Exchange. (in speculating on margin) to operate in, or employ in, pyramiding.
noun
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a huge masonry construction that has a square base and, as in the case of the ancient Egyptian royal tombs, four sloping triangular sides
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an object, formation, or structure resembling such a construction
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maths a solid having a polygonal base and triangular sides that meet in a common vertex
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crystallog a crystal form in which three planes intersect all three axes of the crystal
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anatomy any pointed or cone-shaped bodily structure or part
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finance a group of enterprises containing a series of holding companies structured so that the top holding company controls the entire group with a relatively small proportion of the total capital invested
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the series of transactions involved in pyramiding securities
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(plural) a game similar to billiards with fifteen coloured balls
verb
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to build up or be arranged in the form of a pyramid
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to speculate in (securities or property) by increasing purchases on additional margin or collateral derived from paper profits associated with high prices of securities and property in a boom
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finance to form (companies) into a pyramid
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pyramidsimple
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pyramidssimple
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have pyramidedperfect
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has pyramidedperfect
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am pyramidingprogressive
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are pyramidingprogressive
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is pyramidingprogressive
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have been pyramidingperfect progressive
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has been pyramidingperfect progressive
Past
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pyramidedsimple
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had pyramidedperfect
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was pyramidingprogressive
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were pyramidingprogressive
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had been pyramidingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pyramid
First recorded in 1350–1400; from Latin pȳramid- (stem of pȳramis ), from Greek pȳramís; replacing Middle English pyramis, from Latin, as above
Explanation
When you think pyramid, you're probably picturing the famous pyramids of Egypt — the enormous triangular monuments where pharaohs were buried thousands of years ago. Besides being a polyhedron shape, pyramid can also represent shady financial dealings. If you've got a pyramid scheme — and if you do, you may be reading this from your jail cell — you have people buy into your "investment" and then they recruit others to buy in, too. The early investors rise in the pyramid and are then paid "returns" out of the funds paid in by the new investors they've recruited (the pyramid base), and on and on.
Vocabulary lists containing pyramid
Ancient Egypt - Introductory
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Aztec, Maya, and Inca Empires - Introductory
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The ACT Math Test: Geometry, List 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It centres around the possibility that City win the Champions League, which would provide qualification for the competition as titleholders - regardless of their status in the English domestic pyramid.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
A pyramid of gold-colored rods was situated over the bed.
From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026
The solution comes to Cartman in a dream, courtesy of Aunt Jemima: the food pyramid is upside down.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026
Bronson Cvijanovich, a former graduate student in the Department of Geology & Geophysics, noted that this is also about the same volume as the largest pyramid at Giza in Egypt.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026
Peering into the dark, he saw the massive pyramid skylights that marked the roof.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
The prospector with his pan and pickax gave way to powerful water cannons that blasted away gold-bearing hillsides, leaving behind incoherent geological arabesques that will likely outlast the pyramids.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
The research focused on six royal mummies originally uncovered during the 1890s at Dahshur, an Egyptian burial complex containing pyramids and shaft tombs.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 30, 2026
Spend enough years standing behind pyramids of hamburgers, posing at fry stations and inserting yourself into the iconography of American restaurant chains, and eventually the props begin to accrue meanings of their own.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
The bout, which will take place at the foot of the pyramids of Giza, is widely viewed as a major mismatch - with critics questioning why a world title is at stake.
From BBC ● May 21, 2026
A whole row of unstrung bows in varying stages of repair or build rested on a worktable, and hundreds of bushels of arrows were stacked into pyramids on the floor beside them.
From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
Among the standouts were three Alpine landscapes by Bruegel, who turned inches of paper into miles of thousands of mountainside by the application of thousands of tiny ink lines sensitively stitched and pyramided together.
From Time Magazine Archive
His funeral took place almost within sight of the house where he was born and of the daily on which he pyramided an empire.
From Time Magazine Archive
The howls of local citizens evicted from apartments to make room for visitors have been loud and anguished, and rents have pyramided.
From Time Magazine Archive
The best special displays are big and impossible to avoid, i.e., pyramided in the center of the aisle, thus bringing traffic to a halt.
From Time Magazine Archive
The agricultural depression, taken together with a series of failed reforms and broken political promises, had pyramided to a climax of social tensions.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
If the pyramiding and true risks had been understood by investors, they would not likely have parted with their money.
From Salon ● May 5, 2013
Some in the world of taxes would describe that as pyramiding.
From New York Times ● Mar. 27, 2010
With the nation's population rising at the rate of 2,600,000 a year, the needs are pyramiding.
From Time Magazine Archive
"It was luck," he recalled, surveying his pyramiding debts, which chased right after his skyrocketing wealth.
From Time Magazine Archive
Mass production, mass marketing and pyramiding profits resulted, first and foremost in the enrichment of businessmen.
From Civilization and Beyond Learning from History by Scott Nearing
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
