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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > MONOLITHIC

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pronounce MONOLITHIC:

MON uh LITH ick
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connect this word to others:

Something monolithic is enormous, uniform, rigid, imposing, one-dimensional, s__scraping (extremely high or tall), and edi___ial (solid and permanent, like a grand building). 

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)  

definition:

Inside the word "monolith," you can see the Greek bits mono-, meaning "one," and lithos, meaning "stone."

A monolith is a rock, a mountain, or a monument that seems to be made up of one enormous stone. Here's Gavea Rock, in Brazil, on the left, and the Rudston Monolith, in England, on the right. Both are monoliths.

(Source 1) (Source 2)

In a figurative sense, something monolithic seems huge, solid, unchangeable, immovable, and very uniform: the same all the way through, without any variety.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "a monolithic building;" "MTV was monolithic."

Other forms: 

The noun is "monolith," and it's the countable kind: "In the nineties, MTV and VH1 were monoliths."

The adverb is "monolithically."

how to use it:

"Monolithic" is a serious, formal, common word.

You might pick it as a dramatic alternative to "enormous" when you're describing a physical object or person. Here's Peter Carty: "He’s a mountain of a man, with a monolithic torso and shoulders."

Or, you might pick it instead of "homogeneous" when you want to emphasize how every part of something (or some group) is all exactly the same. "Some Americans see China as a monolithic culture, but it's really not."

Or, you might pick it instead of "vast," "immense," "powerful," "imposing," "dominating," or "hegemonic" when you want to emphasize the difficulty, or even futility, of trying to fight, move, change, or compete with something. "What does  Amazon have in common with organized religion? They're monolithic."

examples:

"With nearly eight hundred rooms and a vast, monolithic façade overlooking the Thames, the Cecil was Europe's largest, if not grandest, hotel."  
   — Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene: An Intimate History, 2016

"[This film is] about the monolithic power of leaders who hypnotise you to do things you don't want to do. You have to feel the violence to know what it's about." 
  — Srdjan Spasojevic, as quoted by Xan Brooks, The Guardian, 27 August 2010

has this page helped you understand "monolithic"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meaning of "monolithic" without saying "solid" or "immense."

try it out:

When you think of board games, you might think of moving your pieces along a track, trying to get somewhere or win something before your opponent does.

But not all board games are like that! For example, "Pandemic" is a collaborative game: you work with the other players to contain deadly diseases. "Harvest" is a worker-placement game: you decide where to send your workers as you plant and harvest crops. And "Wingspan" is a tableau-building, engine-building game: you attract birds to add to your wildlife preserves while making choices that build your "engine" or capability to attract the birds.

In other words, board games aren't monolithic.

With this in mind as an example, talk about another thing that isn't monolithic like some people might think.




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "That's A New One!"

I'll define and describe an amusing term that Dictionary.com has recently embraced. See if you can come up with it, and if you need more hints, you can reveal them by highlighting the black bits. To see the answer, scroll all the way down. 

Try this one today:

According to Dictionary.com, it's "a strong negative reaction... against the largest technology companies, or their employees or products."

It entered English around the year 2015.

It's one word.

It's a compound word.

It's modeled after a similar-looking, more general word.

It starts with the letter... T.

Its number of syllables is...two.

Its first three letters are... TEC.

review this word:

1. In its literal sense, MONOLITHIC's precise opposite is POLYLITHIC, meaning "made up of multiple stones." But in its figurative sense, MONOLITHIC's opposites include

A. ROBUST and HEALTHY.
B. DIVERSE and ADAPTABLE.
C. MEANINGFUL and FULFILLING.

2. As Salon reported, in The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food, "Chef Marcus Samuelsson is doing his best to help everyone _____ what we're cooking at home," explaining that he "didn't want Black food to be reduced to one monolithic thing.'"

A. savor
B. elevate
C. diversify




Answers to the review questions:
1. B
2. C

From the game: techlash, modeled after backlash or possibly whiplash.


a final word:


I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.


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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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