stylobate

American  

[stahy-luh-beyt] / ˈstaɪ ləˌbeɪt /

noun

Architecture.

1. a course of masonry, part of the stereobate, forming the foundation for a colonnade, especially the outermost colonnade.

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stylobate British  

/ ˈstaɪləˌbeɪt /

noun

1. a continuous horizontal course of masonry that supports a colonnade

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Etymology

Origin of stylobate

1555–65; < Latin stȳlobatēs, stȳlobata < Greek stȳlobátēs, equivalent to stȳlo- stylo- ² + -batēs ( ba- (base of baínein to step) + -tēs agent suffix)

Example Sentences

Projection of the stylobate with hypothesis of embossments on the stylobates and the bases of the columns.

From The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

This cella, excluding its walls and the passage round the outside, should have a diameter equivalent to the height of a column above the stylobate.

From The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

But if such a temple is to be constructed in peripteral form, let two steps and then the stylobate be constructed below.

From The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

He especially notices their scandalous proceeding upon taking up one of the great white marble blocks which form the floor or stylobate of the temple.

From Rambles and Studies in Greece by Mahaffy, J. P.

Having reached a great square he saw the portico of a palace in the Classic style, whose Corinthian columns reared their capitals of arborescent acanthus seventy metres above the stylobate.

From Penguin Island by France, Anatole