pinnacle

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French pinacle, pinnacle, from Late Latin pinnaculum (“a peak, pinnacle”), double diminutive of Latin pinna (“a pinnacle”); see pin. Doublet of panache.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪnəkəl/

pinnacle (plural pinnacles)

1. The highest point.

   Antonym: nadir

2. A tall, sharp and craggy rock or mountain.
3. (figuratively) An all-time high; a point of greatest achievement or success.
4. (architecture) An upright member, generally ending in a small spire, used to finish a buttress, to constitute a part in a proportion, as where pinnacles flank a gable or spire.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     Some renowned metropolis / With glistering spires and pinnacles around.

• See also Thesaurus:apex

• acme
• apex
• peak
• summit

pinnacle (third-person singular simple present pinnacles, present participle pinnacling, simple past and past participle pinnacled)

1. To put something on a pinnacle.
2. To build or furnish with a pinnacle or pinnacles.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of T. Warton to this entry?)

• pinnacle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• pinnacle in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• pannicle