Landmark

How to spell landmark

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce landmark

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does landmark mean?

1. nounA prominent or easily recognised feature of a place, such as a building or natural object, that helps people find their way.
2. adjectiveMarking an important stage or turning point; historically significant.

Landmark in a sentence

• noun

  The old clock tower is the most useful landmark for visitors trying to find the station.

• adjective

  The court delivered a landmark ruling that changed employment law across the country.

• noun

  Every landmark on the walking route was clearly shown on the trail map.

• adjective

  The merger was a landmark deal in the history of the company.

Where does landmark come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English compound, joining the Old English words 'land' (ground or territory) and 'mearc' (a boundary, sign, or mark). In its earliest use, going back to before the year 1000, a landmark was quite literally an object that marked the edge of a piece of land: a boundary stone, a fence, or a notable tree that told neighbours where one holding ended and the next began. From that legal and agricultural sense it broadened to mean any prominent feature of a landscape that travellers could steer by, such as a hill, a church tower, or a tall building. By the nineteenth century the word had taken on its now common figurative meaning, a milestone or turning point of great importance in history or in someone's life. Because both halves of the compound are ordinary English words spelled exactly as you would expect, the spelling holds no hidden trap, and the second element shares its root with 'mark' and 'demarcation'.

How the word is built

• land (ground, territory)
• mark (sign, boundary marker)