monolith

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a large single block of stone, especially one used as a monument

   The ancient monolith stood alone on the plain.

2. 2
   noun

   a massive, uniform, and hard-to-change organization, system, or structure

   The startup slowly turned into a bureaucratic monolith.

3. 3
   noun

   a software system built and deployed as one large unified application

   The team split the monolith only after the domain boundaries were clear.

Simplified etymology

Monolith was formed in the mid-19th century from mono-, "single," and Greek-derived -lith, from lithos, "stone." It therefore originally denoted a single large stone.

From French monolithe, ultimately from Greek monolithos (made of one stone), from mono- (single) + lithos (stone).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary