caryatid
Americannoun
-
caryatids,
plural
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caryatides
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of caryatid
1555–65; < Latin Caryātides (singular Caryātis ) < Greek Karyā́tides columns shaped like women, literally, women of Karýai, Laconia
Vocabulary lists containing caryatid
Ancient Greece - Middle School and High School
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Art History
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Example Sentences
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See Examples For:
The single square column features crouching figures in the capital who seem to be holding up the arch, a playful evocation of the classical figure of the caryatid or herm.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 21, 2026
In ancient Greece, the culture where male athletes were so highly prized as heroic citizens, a caryatid was a draped female figure used instead of a column as an architectural support.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2023
Although their name was an architectural inside joke — a caryatid is a type of Greek column that is also a statue of the female likeness — their guileful display took on some serious issues.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2018
You may think that David Cameron's well-heeled colleagues would give him a marble caryatid bought from the Frieze Masters art fair for his birthday.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 12, 2012
“A caryatid wouldn’t be strong enough for Dad.”
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
Sometimes the frieze is omitted, as in the entablature of the portico of the caryatides of the Erechtheum.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 6 "English Language" to "Epsom Salts" by Various
Soon she had made friends with the heroes and heroines that are the caryatides of the book-shelves.
From Eden An Episode by Edgar Saltus
It is from imperfect views of this, that the meaning and effect of caryatides have been mistaken: instead of being oppressed by weight, they seem, when well employed, to have no weight to support.
From Beauty Illustrated Chiefly by an Analysis and Classificatin of Beauty in Woman by Alexander Walker
The drawing is in his best manner, the frame-border of caryatides in camaieu is of a richness of ornamentation in keeping with the rest of the volume.
From Illuminated Manuscripts by John William Bradley
Jean Goujon himself has left his brilliant souvenirs on all sides, caryatides, festoons, bas-reliefs, statues and colonnades.
From Royal Palaces and Parks of France by Blanche McManus
Brought together from three separate museum collections, they are lined up in a row, Modernist caryatids of a farewell portal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
In it, she and Cardi B dress in Grecian goddess-inspired dresses, dance in front of classically inspired statuary, wear headdresses that evoke caryatids and transform into Grecian vases.
From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2021
Their eccentric profile, isolated against white, forms a kind of muscular torso, not unlike Matisse’s 1909 “Bather,” striding through water, or one of Modigliani’s caryatids.
From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2020
He sat in a ostentatious Greek-style hall bedecked with four caryatids, the draped female figures used in columns — a style first seen in Delphi 2 ½ millennia ago.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 12, 2019
Small kids were perched on tabletops because there weren't enough chairs, and the Epiphany sixth graders stood like caryatids leaning against three of the four walls of the room.
From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
