MONUMENTAL

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does monumental mean? 

• MONUMENTAL (adjective)
  The adjective MONUMENTAL has 3 senses:

1. relating or belonging to or serving as a monument

2. of outstanding significance

3. imposing in size or bulk or solidity

  Familiarity information: MONUMENTAL used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MONUMENTAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Relating or belonging to or serving as a monument

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

monumental sculptures

Pertainym:

monument (a structure erected to commemorate persons or events)

Derivation:

monument (a structure erected to commemorate persons or events)

monument (a burial vault (usually for some famous person))

monument (an important site that is marked and preserved as public property)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Of outstanding significance

Context example:

Einstein's monumental contributions to physics

Similar:

important; significant (important in effect or meaning)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Imposing in size or bulk or solidity

Synonyms:

massive; monolithic; monumental

Context example:

a monumental scale

Similar:

big; large (above average in size or number or quantity or magnitude or extent)

 Context examples 

Meanwhile, on December 2, Jupiter, the great good fortune planet, will make his monumental move into Capricorn for the first time in 12 years.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

An accretion disk is a spiraling mass of material centered around a monumental source of gravity consuming interstellar material–what researchers have theorized is a black hole.

(Astronomers Study How Quasars Are Powered by Accretion Disks, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The Classic period was marked by the construction of monumental architecture, intellectual and artistic development, and the growth of large city-states.

(Scientists measure severity of drought during the Maya collapse, University of Cambridge)

Outside was a considerable yard full of monumental masonry.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I look up at the monumental tablets on the wall, and try to think of Mr. Bodgers late of this parish, and what the feelings of Mrs. Bodgers must have been, when affliction sore, long time Mr. Bodgers bore, and physicians were in vain.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was my business to visit this little-known back-country and to examine its fauna, which furnished me with the materials for several chapters for that great and monumental work upon zoology which will be my life's justification.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The start of the month brings the monumental move of Jupiter, the giver of gifts and luck, into Capricorn, a fellow earth sign and your fifth house of truelove, on December 2.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The news you hear won’t be about a small advancement—this seems to bring a monumental one.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)