castellum

American  

[ka-stel-uhm] / kæˈstɛl əm /

noun

Archaeology.

castelli plural

1. a small isolated fortress, or one of a series of such fortresses, of the ancient Romans.

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• castelli
  plural

Etymology

Origin of castellum

< Latin: fortified settlement, fortress < *casterlom < *castṛlom < *castrelom, equivalent to castr ( a ) (neuter plural) fortified camp + *-elom diminutive suffix; see -ule, -elle

Example Sentences

Head first to 2,000-year-old Dom Square, where the Romans built the castellum Traiectum, a fort that became the city’s foundation.

From Washington Post • Jan. 29, 2020

In the twenty years since—this was a project with many political moments, many waves—a western section has become an archeological museum, housed in a wooden reconstruction of a Roman castellum.

From The New Yorker • May 16, 2016

It was not a camp, sir, a castrum, but a castellum, a little camp, or watch-station, to which was attached, on the peak of the adjacent hill, a beacon for transmitting alarms.

From Crotchet Castle by Peacock, Thomas Love

Near the church is a mound, on which stood the "castellum."

From Seaward Sussex The South Downs from End to End by Holmes, Edric

Under Drusus a castellum was erected here, which was destroyed by the Franks and the Alemanni.

From The Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine by Mansfield, M. F. (Milburg Francisco)