pinnacle

American  

[pin-uh-kuhl] / ˈpɪn ə kəl /

noun

• pinnacles
  plural

1. 

   a lofty peak.

2. the highest or culminating point, as of success, power, fame, etc..

   the pinnacle of one's career.

   Synonyms:

   zenith, summit, peak, acme, apex

   Antonyms:

   nadir

3. any pointed, towering part or formation, as of rock.

   Synonyms:

   needle

4. Architecture. a relatively small, upright structure, commonly terminating in a gable, a pyramid, or a cone, rising above the roof or coping of a building, or capping a tower, buttress, or other projecting architectural member.

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verb (used with object)

pinnacled, pinnacling

1. to place on or as on a pinnacle.

2. to form a pinnacle on; crown.

pinnacle British  

/ ˈpɪnəkəl /

noun

1. the highest point or level, esp of fame, success, etc

2. a towering peak, as of a mountain

3. a slender upright structure in the form of a cone, pyramid, or spire on the top of a buttress, gable, or tower

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verb

1. to set on or as if on a pinnacle

2. to furnish with a pinnacle or pinnacles

3. to crown with a pinnacle

Usage

What does pinnacle mean? A pinnacle is the highest point of something, especially success or fame. The pinnacle of a person’s career, for example, is the point at which they are most successful in their field. In a literal sense, a pinnacle is a tall peak of a mountain. In architecture, a pinnacle is an upright structure (usually some kind of cone, pyramid, or spire) that rises up from the roof of a building or caps a tower. Example: Reaching the pinnacle of Sagarmāthā was the pinnacle of my mountaineering career.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• pinnacles
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pinnacle

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English pinacle, from Middle French, from Late Latin pinnāculum “gable,” equivalent to Latin pinn(a) “raised part of a parapet,” literally, “wing, feather ” ( see pinna) + -āculum; see tabernacle

Explanation

Going as far into the sky as you can go on foot, you'll reach the highest point, or pinnacle, of the Himalayas. A successful climb like that might also become the pinnacle, or peak, of your success. Two synonyms for pinnacle also start with the letter "p," "peak" and "point." A pinnacle can be a physical thing, like the top of a high mountain or the antenna on the very top of a building, or it can be a high point that can’t be measured with a ruler, like an achievement or a goal. Whatever the pinnacle is, reaching it is almost always a completion of something where you have gone the highest you can go. "Acme" is a great synonym for pinnacle.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pinnacle pinnacles pinnacled pinnacling

World Athletics and its president, Lord Coe, worked for three years to tackle the absence of a season-ending pinnacle event.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

The pinnacle of that effort was a massive contract with Swiss marketing giant ISL.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

Now, imagine all that delirium, sign-waving and call-in voting was in service of pushing Art Garfunkel to the pinnacle of the premier music video countdown.

From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026

“It represents the pinnacle of luxury living, privacy, and security,” she shared.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026

I clambered back over the pinnacle of Fourth Mountain—much harder with a pack—and into another wooded valley beyond.

From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson

The fire sequences alone, captured in the hellish fuzz of Pål Ulvik Rokseth’s cinematography, are pinnacles of this practical-meets-digital-effects discipline.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2025

He struck on an idea to carve representations of the American West into the granite pinnacles of the Central Black Hills: The Lakota leader Red Cloud, Lewis and Clark, George Armstrong Custer.

From Slate ● Mar. 13, 2025

The juniors appear to have risen to their career pinnacles.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 10, 2023

Thompson emphatically opened the past as a living resource while claiming one of the pinnacles of white, male Western culture for future use by others.

From New York Times ● Jun. 15, 2023

There was the neck of land, the ledge skirting the rock, up there were the red pinnacles.

From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding

Oak Flat is a cactus-covered, sun-baked landscape of pinnacled rock formations and Native American archaeological and burial sites, home to a plethora of plants and animals.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2023

“I felt like the Last Man … left pinnacled in mid-heaven.”

From Washington Post ● Aug. 15, 2016

Mr. Kelley “is doing something quite wonderful,” Mr. Tuggle said while showing a visitor around a pinnacled sideboard piled with vessels in orchid, dogwood, iris and nasturtium motifs.

From New York Times ● Jan. 17, 2013

“Said to be most expensive set ever made in America at that time,” he wrote on the label for one pinnacled chair, listing its original home as a mansion in Yonkers.

From New York Times ● Jan. 10, 2013

In Belsize Square stands the Church of St. Peter, with a square pinnacled tower.

From Hampstead and Marylebone The Fascination of London by Sir Walter Besant

She pointed, still smiling, to the purple clouds now pinnacling the west, and said that it was time to be going homeward.

From Oldfield A Kentucky Tale of the Last Century by Nancy Huston Banks

"I will!" said Sammy Durgan with a sudden pinnacling of determination—and he sprang to his feet.

From The Night Operator by Frank L. (Frank Lucius) Packard

She had guarded her memory of him so tenderly, weaving a thousand extravagant tales about him, pinnacling him above all men, her hero, her knight, her preux chevalier.

From The Shadow of the East by E. M. (Edith Maude) Hull

Related Words

• apex
• culmination
• greatest
• height
• peak