pyramid
Americannoun
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pyramids
plural
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Architecture.
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(in ancient Egypt) a quadrilateral masonry mass having smooth, steeply sloping sides meeting at an apex, used as a tomb.
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(in ancient Egypt and pre-Columbian Central America) a quadrilateral masonry mass, stepped and sharply sloping, used as a tomb or a platform for a temple.
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anything of such form.
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a number of persons or things arranged or heaped up in this manner.
a pyramid of acrobats; a pyramid of boxes.
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a system or structure resembling a pyramid, as in hierarchical form.
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Geometry. a solid having a polygonal base, and triangular sides that meet in a point.
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Crystallography. any form the planes of which intersect all three of the axes.
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Anatomy, Zoology. any of various parts or structures of pyramidal form.
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a tree pruned or trained to grow in conical form.
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(used with a singular verb) pyramids, a form of pocket billiards for two or four players in which 15 colored balls, initially placed in the form of a triangle, are pocketed with one white cue ball.
verb (used without object)
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pyramids,
present (3rd person singular)
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pyramided,
past participle, past
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pyramiding
present participle
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to take, or become disposed in, the form of a pyramid.
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Stock Exchange. (in speculating on margin) to enlarge one's operations in a series of transactions, as on a continued rise or decline in price, by using profits in transactions not yet closed, and consequently not yet in hand, as margin for additional buying or selling in the next transaction.
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to increase gradually, as with the completion of each phase.
Our problems are beginning to pyramid.
verb (used with object)
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pyramids,
present (3rd person singular)
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pyramided,
past participle, past
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pyramiding
present participle
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to arrange in the form of a pyramid.
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to raise or increase (costs, wages, etc.) by adding amounts gradually.
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to cause to increase at a steady and progressive rate.
New overseas markets have pyramided the company's profits.
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Stock Exchange. (in speculating on margin) to operate in, or employ in, pyramiding.
noun
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a huge masonry construction that has a square base and, as in the case of the ancient Egyptian royal tombs, four sloping triangular sides
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an object, formation, or structure resembling such a construction
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maths a solid having a polygonal base and triangular sides that meet in a common vertex
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crystallog a crystal form in which three planes intersect all three axes of the crystal
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anatomy any pointed or cone-shaped bodily structure or part
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finance a group of enterprises containing a series of holding companies structured so that the top holding company controls the entire group with a relatively small proportion of the total capital invested
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the series of transactions involved in pyramiding securities
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(plural) a game similar to billiards with fifteen coloured balls
verb
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to build up or be arranged in the form of a pyramid
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to speculate in (securities or property) by increasing purchases on additional margin or collateral derived from paper profits associated with high prices of securities and property in a boom
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finance to form (companies) into a pyramid
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pyramidsimple
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pyramidssimple
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have pyramidedperfect
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has pyramidedperfect
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am pyramidingprogressive
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are pyramidingprogressive
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is pyramidingprogressive
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have been pyramidingperfect progressive
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has been pyramidingperfect progressive
Past
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pyramidedsimple
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had pyramidedperfect
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was pyramidingprogressive
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were pyramidingprogressive
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had been pyramidingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pyramid
First recorded in 1350–1400; from Latin pȳramid- (stem of pȳramis ), from Greek pȳramís; replacing Middle English pyramis, from Latin, as above
Explanation
When you think pyramid, you're probably picturing the famous pyramids of Egypt — the enormous triangular monuments where pharaohs were buried thousands of years ago. Besides being a polyhedron shape, pyramid can also represent shady financial dealings. If you've got a pyramid scheme — and if you do, you may be reading this from your jail cell — you have people buy into your "investment" and then they recruit others to buy in, too. The early investors rise in the pyramid and are then paid "returns" out of the funds paid in by the new investors they've recruited (the pyramid base), and on and on.
Vocabulary lists containing pyramid
Ancient Egypt - Introductory
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Aztec, Maya, and Inca Empires - Introductory
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The ACT Math Test: Geometry, List 2
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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.
See Examples For:
The next Watkins, Eze, Wharton or Semenyo may already be somewhere further down the pyramid.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Such pyramid arrangements have since been known as “Ponzi schemes.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
I’d run my fingers across the convex pyramid textures in the same way other people lay under a weighted blanket or ate sour candy, jolting my subconscious back into the here and now.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
UBS expects this trend to continue and to make the shape of the global wealth pyramid obsolete before the end of the decade.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
It’s just the dark tip of a much larger, much deeper, much blacker pyramid.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
Spend enough years standing behind pyramids of hamburgers, posing at fry stations and inserting yourself into the iconography of American restaurant chains, and eventually the props begin to accrue meanings of their own.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
Visiting international fans have rhapsodized about our hospitality and gushed over culinary miracles like ranch dressing and Philly cheesesteak while trekking to Costco like it is our version of the pyramids.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
“Fantasy” resulted from his meditations within the pyramids of Giza and his claimed communications with aliens.
From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2026
A Glasgow academic who was on top of Mexico's Teotihuacán pyramids when a gunman opened fire has told how she escaped by scrambling down its steep ledges.
From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2026
Were the pyramids as tall as this building, did the pharaohs sit on top and take the measure of their kingdoms, to see how diminished the world became when you gained the proper distance?
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
Meanwhile Billie Jean and Husband-Partner Larry have pyramided her skill and name into a tidy little conglomerate.
From Time Magazine Archive
Well, perhaps he had been the richest man in Germany, for a time, while the mark was falling, and he was building great pyramided super-trusts.
From Time Magazine Archive
Such a measure, he cautioned, was not to be confused with a general sales tax because, he said, the former could not be "pyramided" and ultimately loaded upon the consumer.
From Time Magazine Archive
In 1930-33, Odlum, with cash in hand, picked up control of enormous pools of capital by paying their hard-hit sponsors a few cents on their lately pyramided dollars.
From Time Magazine Archive
The paint was stacked in neatly pyramided lots along the concrete floor.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
If the pyramiding and true risks had been understood by investors, they would not likely have parted with their money.
From Salon ● May 5, 2013
Some in the world of taxes would describe that as pyramiding.
From New York Times ● Mar. 27, 2010
But most businessmen blamed the present crazily unbalanced system of controls for the pyramiding secondary shortages that made the overall shortages worse by cutting off what supplies of materials there were.
From Time Magazine Archive
They were protesting the bureau's inefficiency and its indifference to the pyramiding problems faced by Indians, especially in the cities.
From Time Magazine Archive
Then they got in on the receiverships, made money at the expense of gullible security holders, and started the same old pyramiding game all over again.
From My Life and Work by Henry Ford
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.
