pillar

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /ˈpɪlɚ/ UK /ˈpɪlə/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
an upright vertical support, or a person regarded as a mainstay

She was a pillar of the community for over thirty years.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · an upright vertical... column post support pier mainstay prop bastion

Word family

Forms pillared

Derived forms pillared

Related forms pilaster pile

Appears in

Idioms (1)

See all

from pillar to post
moved repeatedly between people or places without making useful progress

Simplified etymology

Pillar comes from Latin pila, meaning “pillar” or “pier.” The same Latin word also lies behind one of the words spelled pile.

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman piler, from Old French piler, from Medieval Latin pilare, from Latin pila ('pillar, pier, stone barrier').

pila Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society Architecture & Buildings Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# pillar

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈpɪlɚ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈpɪlə/

## Meanings
1. an upright vertical support, or a person regarded as a mainstay

## Examples
- She was a pillar of the community for over thirty years.

## Synonyms
- column
- post
- support
- pier
- mainstay
- prop
- bastion

## Derived Forms
- pillared

## Related Forms
- pilaster
- pile

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: pila

## Etymology
From Anglo-Norman piler, from Old French piler, from Medieval Latin pilare, from Latin pila ('pillar, pier, stone barrier').

## AI Etymology
Pillar is from Anglo-Norman piler, from Old French piler, from Medieval Latin pilare, from Latin pila ('pillar, pier, stone barrier'). Important recorded forms include pila (Latin). Morphologically, the ending or combining element turns the older base into the present English part of speech. The modern sense follows that older lexical line closely. In current use it covers an upright vertical support, or a person regarded as a mainstay. The wider family includes derived forms such as pillared and related words such as pilaster and pile.

## Topics
- People & Society
- Architecture & Buildings
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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