monolith

Meanings

1. A large, single block of stone which is a natural feature; or a block of stone or other similar material used in architecture and sculpture, especially one carved into a monument in ancient times.
2. Anything massive, uniform, and unmovable, especially a towering and impersonal cultural, political, or social organization or structure.
3. A substrate having many tiny channels that is cast as a single piece, which is used as a stationary phase for chromatography, as a catalytic surface, etc.
4. A dead tree whose height and size have been reduced by breaking off or cutting its branches.

1. To create (something) as, or convert (one or more things) into, a monolith.
2. To cast (one or more concrete components) in a single piece with no joints.
3. To reduce the height and size of (a dead tree) by breaking off or cutting its branches.

1. An unincorporated community in Kern County, California, United States.

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from French monolithe (“object made from a single block of stone”), from Middle French monolythe (“made from a single block of stone”) (rare), and from their etymon Latin monolithus (“made from a single block of stone”), from Ancient Greek μονόλιθος (monólithos, “made from a single block of stone”), from μονο- (mono-, prefix meaning ‘alone; single’) (from μόνος (mónos, “alone; only, unique”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“little, small”)) + λίθος (líthos, “a stone; stone as a substance”); analysable as mono- + -lith. The English word is cognate with German monolith (“made from a single block of stone”). The verb is derived from the noun.