caryatid
/ˌkɛəɹiˈætɪd/
caryatid noun: a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head.
Noun
caryatid (plural caryatids or caryatides)
- A sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head.
- She wore on the top of her head an upright circular cap that made her resemble a caryatid disburdened, and on other parts of her person strange combinations of colours, stuffs, shapes, of metal, mineral and plant.1901, Henry James, Flickerbridge
Forms of caryatid
| plural | caryatids |
|---|---|
| plural | caryatides |
Origin of caryatid
From Middle French cariatide, from Latin caryatides, from Ancient Greek Καρυάτιδες (Karuátides), plural of Καρυᾶτις (Karuâtis, “a priestess of Artemis, female figures used as bearing-shafts”), from καρυατίζω (karuatízō, “dance the Karyatid festival dance”) from Καρύαι (Karúai, “a town in Laconia with a temple of Artemis and a festival”).
Words formed from caryatid
Questions about caryatid
- What does caryatid mean?
- Caryatid means a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head.
- What part of speech is caryatid?
- Caryatid is a noun.
- How do you pronounce caryatid?
- Caryatid is pronounced /ˌkɛəɹiˈætɪd/.
- What is the plural of caryatid?
- The plural of caryatid is caryatids.
Words near caryatid in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: caryatid (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-caryatid.wav.
Cite this entry: “caryatid.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/caryatid. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.