pedestal
Americannoun
-
pedestals
plural
-
an architectural support for a column, statue, vase, or the like.
-
a supporting structure or piece; base.
-
Furniture.
-
a support for a desk, consisting of a boxlike frame containing drawers one above the other.
-
a columnar support for a tabletop.
-
-
Building Trades. a bulge cast at the bottom of a concrete pile.
verb (used with object)
idioms
noun
-
a base that supports a column, statue, etc, as used in classical architecture
-
a position of eminence or supposed superiority (esp in the phrases place, put, or set on a pedestal )
-
-
either of a pair of sets of drawers used as supports for a writing surface
-
( as modifier )
a pedestal desk
-
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of pedestal
1555–65; alteration of Middle French piedestal < Italian piedestallo, variant of piedistallo literally, foot of stall. See ped- 2, de, stall 1
Explanation
A pedestal is a base or foundation that supports something like a statue or work of art. Think of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. where a statue of Lincoln sitting in a chair is raised up on a huge pedestal. Think of the physical stand or support when you use pedestal figuratively to mean a place of superiority. If you put someone on a pedestal, you honor that person or place him or her above you, as you might a piece of valued art. If you want to knock someone off his or her pedestal, you think that person is too arrogant and you want to do something to humble him or her.
Vocabulary lists containing pedestal
Body Language: Ped, Pod ("Foot")
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
The Poet X
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
On a Pedestal: Marble-ous Words for Sculpture
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Is historic male dominance in sports teetering like a marble Adonis on a wobbly pedestal?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
“A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
Parton asked them to withdraw the bill, saying that “given all that is going on in the world, I don’t think putting me on a pedestal is appropriate at this time.”
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026
"Playing an Open at Birkdale is something that is always going to be very, very special and sit on a pedestal for anybody from Southport," Fleetwood said.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
The reason I was almost naked on a pedestal clapping was that I was getting a suit tailored.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
Some artificial-intelligence stocks that got knocked off their pedestals, in part due to a bruising July selloff, now represent attractive opportunities for investors, according to BofA analysts.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
Displaying them overhead or enshrined on pedestals, as at MoMA, is more dramatic and less ambiguous than propping them against gallery walls.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026
"Nothing is left but the pedestals of the memorials and a few of the stones from them," he wrote online.
From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2025
Specifically, Parisi looked at certain pedestals and determined the amount of heating and fueling required to achieve it given a particular plasma shape.
From Science Daily ● May 28, 2024
Great statues of the gods and heroes of Calormen—who are mostly impressive rather than agreeable to look at—rose on shining pedestals.
From "The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis
But to Back Bay he is an idol, firmly pedestaled.
From Time Magazine Archive
The trainer swaggered up to a pedestaled tiger, thrust the chair at its open jaws.
From Time Magazine Archive
He flicked a whip at the cageful of pedestaled lions & tigers, took the chance of turning his back on them, jumped into the fight.
From Time Magazine Archive
Coal followed one of the curves to the closest pedestaled mirror.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
A young Irishman, primed for the occasion, jumped to his feet with an impassioned harangue that pedestaled Ridgway as the Washington of the West.
From Ridgway of Montana (Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain) by William MacLeod Raine
She had always accepted with philosophic calm the fact that such existences as hers were pedestalled on foundations of obscure humanity.
From House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
He really must get some one to give him that little pedestalled Cupid which he saw yesterday in Wardour Street.
From Yet Again by Sir Max Beerbohm
Rather turn Whither, upon the upland, pedestalled Into the broad day-splendour, whom discern These eyes but thee, supreme one, rightly called Moon-maid in heaven above and, here below, Earth's huntress-queen?
From An Introduction to the Study of Browning by Arthur Symons
As we drove up to the porticoed front door, I observed in front of it, beside the tennis lawn, the black tool-house and the pedestalled sundial with which we had such strange associations.
From The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
It rises full over the desert; and a vast horizon comes into relief, broken by a huge shape which soon reveals itself in the spreading radiance as a Sphinx pedestalled on the sands.
From Caesar and Cleopatra by Bernard Shaw
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
