plinth
Americannoun
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a slablike member beneath the base of a column or pier.
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a square base or a lower block, as of a pedestal.
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Also called plinth course. a projecting course of stones at the base of a wall; earth table.
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(in joinery) a flat member at the bottom of an architrave, dado, baseboard, or the like.
noun
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Also called: socle. the rectangular slab or block that forms the lowest part of the base of a column, statue, pedestal, or pier
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Also called: plinth course. the lowest part of the wall of a building that appears above ground level, esp one that is formed of a course of stone or brick
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a flat block on either side of a doorframe, where the architrave meets the skirting
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a flat base on which a structure or piece of equipment is placed
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of plinth
1555–65; earlier plinthus < Latin < Greek plínthos plinth, squared stone, brick, tile
Explanation
If a building has columns, you can call the platform or base on which a column rests a plinth. The plinth typically lies between the column and the ground. In architecture, a plinth is one of the basic building elements. While it's most common for a plinth to support a pillar or column, it can also be used as a base or slab underneath a statue, a bust, or a decorative vase, and in engineering a plinth is the support for a dam. The word comes from the Greek root plinthos, "brick" or "squared stone."
Vocabulary lists containing plinth
Lord of the Flies
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Built To Last: Architectural Parlance
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The Namesake
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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.
The winners are picked by the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, partly based on feedback from the public.
From BBC • Feb. 19, 2024
Plinth reconstruction was 64% done in late January, three months behind schedule, but the line should still open sometime in 2025, agency executives reported last week.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 15, 2024
It is calling for residents to submit personal items for a People's Plinth - objects that "offer a snapshot of Tyneside as it was, as it is, and as it might become".
From BBC • Apr. 21, 2023
He discussed how an antique photograph of John Chilembwe, a Black African revolutionary who fought against British colonialism, and John Chorley, a white British missionary and friend of Chilembwe’s, inspired his Plinth piece.
From New York Times • Oct. 9, 2022
Mrs. Plinth came to her support with a heavy murmur of assent, and Laura Glyde breathed emotionally: "I have known cases where it has changed a whole life."
From The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton — Part 2 by Wharton, Edith
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.
