monolithic

adjective

mono·​lith·​ic ˌmä-nə-ˈli-thik 

1

a

: of, relating to, or resembling a monolith : huge, massive

a large monolithic building

an influential monolithic organization

b(1)

: formed from a single crystal

a monolithic silicon chip

(2)

: produced in or on a monolithic chip (see chip entry 1 sense 6b)

a monolithic circuit

2

a

: cast as a single piece

a monolithic concrete wall

b

: formed or composed of material without joints or seams

a monolithic floor covering

c

: consisting of or constituting a single unit

3

a

: constituting a massive undifferentiated and often rigid whole

a monolithic society

b

: exhibiting or characterized by often rigidly fixed uniformity

monolithic party unity

monolithically

ˌmä-nə-ˈli-thi-k(ə-)lē 

adverb

Examples of monolithic in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Developing countries, defined at the time as the members of the G-77 and China, were treated as a monolithic category and asked to make only voluntary contributions. —Kelly Sims Gallagher, Foreign Affairs, 23 Apr. 2024

The park is bounded by two monolithic forces that made the slave trade in the United States possible. —Kyle Gassiott, NPR, 22 Apr. 2024

Recommended Many historians say this history is flawed, erasing centuries of peaceful coexistence between different religions and portraying Hindu culture as monolithic. —Aakash Hassan, The Christian Science Monitor, 18 Apr. 2024

In practice, this type of ecosystem goes beyond monolithic approaches and walled gardens — connecting both new and legacy players’ hardware and software to develop a future-proof tech stack built on open data models. —Natan Linder, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2024

The message was clear: Native Americans—perceived of as a monolithic culture—were primitive and destined for disappearance, fitting more with displays of animals than with the American History Museum’s message of technology and progress. —Kathleen Duval, TIME, 10 Apr. 2024

Previously working on a system designed in a monolithic pattern and deployed on-premise, Mahalingam broke the system in his company, into microservices and migrated it to Azure cloud to scale automatically with the seasonally increasing or decreasing transaction volume. —Hilary Tetenabaum, USA TODAY, 5 Apr. 2024

And the darkness is no longer monolithic, but swirls with shades of black and a parade of textures. —Carolyn Wells, Longreads, 26 Mar. 2024

Some leaders may still gravitate towards generic, monolithic solutions to meet their needs at the end of the day. —Steve Rodda, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024

Word History

Etymology

see monolith

First Known Use

1825, in the meaning defined at sense 1a