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.

---

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

---

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

This will have been close to the pinnacle.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

He led Michigan to the pinnacle of March Madness last season and posted a 64-13 record in two years.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026

Open at Los Angeles Country Club, the victory marked a return to the pinnacle of golf after his career had spun off track.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026

Unlike certain observers, Katie Couric, a former star of “60 Minutes” and other pinnacle network news shows, notices the richness of the episode.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

At the pinnacle of his career, that figure had jumped to 90 percent, plus eight million sets in cars.

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand

The route involves navigating extremely challenging terrain, significant exposure, steep pinnacles and drops on both sides.

From BBC ● Feb. 27, 2026

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

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

It ended a 13-year marriage between two superstars who reached the pinnacles of football and fashion, respectively.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 1, 2023

The colonial architecture felt foreign but also crisp and unimposing compared to the Gothic pinnacles of Cambridge.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

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

Dawn on its fluted brow painted rainbow light, Close on its pinnacled crown trembled the stars at night.

From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 14 (of 25) by Stevenson, Robert Louis

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 Hull, E. M. (Edith Maude)

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

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

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 Banks, Nancy Huston

Related Words

• apex
• culmination
• greatest
• height
• peak