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:
Without tiers one and two of the football pyramid in action, it also means room on the television schedule for lower-league matches - a financial boost for those clubs.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
A pyramid of gold-colored rods was situated over the bed.
From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026
The solution comes to Cartman in a dream, courtesy of Aunt Jemima: the food pyramid is upside down.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026
Bronson Cvijanovich, a former graduate student in the Department of Geology & Geophysics, noted that this is also about the same volume as the largest pyramid at Giza in Egypt.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026
If Mama wanted us, I was pretty sure we’d be able to hear her yelling if we were in the bottom of a pyramid way out in Africa.
From "Root Magic" by Eden Royce
The research focused on six royal mummies originally uncovered during the 1890s at Dahshur, an Egyptian burial complex containing pyramids and shaft tombs.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 30, 2026
That squeeze on the calendar would be felt all the way down the pyramids domestically and affect the structure of the game in every single country.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 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
It rules the Mississippi as definitively as the pyramids of Egypt rule the Nile, but speaking of a bright future rather than inexorable fate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
The Egyptians also learned how to measure the volumes of objects—like pyramids.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
The nation's bill for foreign oil pyramided from $3.9 billion in 1972* to $24 billion last year.
From Time Magazine Archive
They have pyramided a single small butcher shop into a chain of 131 big stores, the seventh biggest food chain in the U.S.
From Time Magazine Archive
The howls of local citizens evicted from apartments to make room for visitors have been loud and anguished, and rents have pyramided.
From Time Magazine Archive
This epidemic pyramided public reaction to a far higher point than usual.*
From Time Magazine Archive
The agricultural depression, taken together with a series of failed reforms and broken political promises, had pyramided to a climax of social tensions.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
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
"It was luck," he recalled, surveying his pyramiding debts, which chased right after his skyrocketing wealth.
From Time Magazine Archive
To avoid pyramiding, each new permanent project has been financed independently.
From Time Magazine Archive
He was now bulling the market by matching orders, pyramiding stock which he owned, using every device that was known to his astute brain.
From Constance Dunlap by Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin) Reeve
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
