Rosetta stone

noun

1. a stone slab, found in 1799 near Rosetta, bearing parallel inscriptions in Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphic, and demotic characters, making possible the decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

2. a clue, breakthrough, or discovery that provides crucial knowledge for the solving of a puzzle or problem.

Rosetta stone

noun

1. a basalt slab discovered in 1799 at Rosetta, dating to the reign of Ptolemy V (196 _bc ) and carved with parallel inscriptions in Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic characters, and Greek, which provided the key to the decipherment of ancient Egyptian texts

Rosetta stone

1. A stone discovered in Egypt (see also Egypt) in the late eighteenth century, inscribed with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and a translation of them in Greek. The stone proved to be the key to understanding Egyptian writing.

A “Rosetta stone” is the key to understanding a complex problem.

Example Sentences

Ignoring this opportunity is like discovering the Rosetta Stone and using it as a doorstop.

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Ignoring this opportunity is like discovering the Rosetta Stone and using it as a doorstop.

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The Supreme Court is forcing lower court judges to decipher meaning from Supreme Court decisions as if they’re the Rosetta stone.

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In hindsight, the moment feels like a Rosetta Stone for his political aesthetics: a kind of populist cosplay that collapses grandeur and banality into the same tableau.

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To this day, there remains no better Rosetta stone for deciphering the Nirvana generation’s view of work than 1999’s “Office Space,” Mike Judge’s paean to the plight of the X-er cubicle drone.

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