menhir

noun

men·​hir ˈmen-ˌhir 

: a single upright rough monolith usually of prehistoric origin

Examples of menhir in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

For one thing, there were menhirs and dolmens all around us. —Rosanna Warren, Harper's Magazine, 25 June 2024

The menhirs rose straight up, crude towers hacked from granite, taller than our parents. —Rosanna Warren, Harper's Magazine, 25 June 2024

By 2020, the modern menhir was a fossil in the making. —Curbed, 24 Jan. 2024

The enormous, 65-ton capstone on top of its chamber is a broken fragment of a menhir, a standing stone, brought from 10 km away. —Mike Parker Pearson, Discover Magazine, 12 Dec. 2015

And yet four decades after the wrapping came off Philip Johnson and John Burgee’s 550 Madison Avenue to reveal a pink stone menhir with a fancy hat, the tower still radiates a wry, ornery, unmistakably New York personality. —Curbed, 2 Nov. 2022

The original menhir may be 300 years (or more) older than the tomb. —Mike Parker Pearson, Discover Magazine, 12 Dec. 2015

Enlarge / Sculpted menhir at the entrance of the corridor leading to the dolmen. —Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 24 Aug. 2022

While Castaño suggests a curvy line seen on the menhir refers to the winding route of the nearby Tagus River, archaeologist Primitiva Bueno Ramírez identifies the marking as a snake with a triangular head. —Meilan Solly, Smithsonian, 9 Sep. 2019

Word History

Etymology

French, from Breton, from men stone + hir long

First Known Use

1840, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for menhir

• adhere
• ameer
• amir
• appear
• arrear
• astir
• austere
• career
• cashier
• cohere
• compere
• emir