Cornerstone

How to spell cornerstone

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce cornerstone

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cornerstone mean?

1. nounA fundamental element or feature on which something important depends.
2. nounA stone set at the corner of a building's foundation, often inscribed with a date.

Cornerstone in a sentence

• Affordable housing is the cornerstone of the council's new plan.

• The mayor laid the cornerstone of the new library in 1908.

• Trust is the cornerstone of any lasting business partnership.

• Workers uncovered the original cornerstone during the renovation.

Where does cornerstone come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a compound of two everyday English words, 'corner' and 'stone', whose roots lie far apart. 'Corner' came into Middle English through Anglo-French from the Latin cornu, which literally meant 'horn' and by extension the projecting point or angle of something. 'Stone' is a native Old English word, stan, which has been part of the language since Anglo-Saxon times and means simply a piece of rock. Builders gave the name to the first stone set at the angle of a foundation, the block from which the whole structure was squared and measured, so getting it right mattered enormously. By the 1600s writers were using it figuratively for any essential element on which a larger thing depends, and that abstract sense is now the more common one. Because it is just 'corner' plus 'stone', the spelling holds no surprises once you see the seam between the two familiar parts.

How the word is built

• corner (from Latin cornu: horn, point, angle)
• stone (from Old English stan: stone)