menhir

Syllables: men·hir/ˈmɛnhɪə//ˈmɛnˌ(h)ɪ(ə)ɹ/

menhir noun: a single tall standing stone as a monument, especially one dating to prehistoric times.

Image: Gzen92, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

menhir (plural menhirs)

A single tall standing stone as a monument, especially one dating to prehistoric times.
- Near-synonym: orthostat
- [N]o time has passed since we lived in caves, grappled with fish at the reedy shore, buried our dead with a song, with red-ochre and pulled up our dolmens, temples and menhirs and standing stones to the glory of some indeterminate god or gods, […]1963, Thomas Pynchon, “Confessions of Fausto Maijstral”, in V.: […], Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC, pages 310–311
Synonyms:

standing stone, orthostat

menhir meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Malayalam

menhir in Tamil

single tall standing stone as a monument: குத்துக்கல் kuttukkal

menhir in Marathi

single tall standing stone as a monument: वीरगळ vīrgaḷ

menhir in Malayalam

single tall standing stone as a monument: മെൻഹിർ meṉhiṟ

More languagesFewer languages

menhir in Tagalog: nakatayong bato
menhir in Arabic: شاهد قائم
menhir in Malay: menhir
menhir in Indonesian: menhir
menhir in Persian: سنگافراشت

Synonyms of menhir

Forms of menhir

plural	menhirs

Origin of menhir

PIE word *méǵh₂s Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂sder.? Proto-Celtic *maginos Proto-Brythonic *maɣɨnder. Breton maen Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-rós Proto-Indo-European *seh₁-ró-s Proto-Celtic *sīros Proto-Brythonic *hirder. Breton hir Breton maen-hirbor. French menhirbor. English menhir Either borrowed from French menhir, or from its etymon Breton maen-hir, compound of maen (“stone”) + hir (“long”). Compare with Welsh maen hir, and Cornish men hir.

Questions about menhir

What does menhir mean?: Menhir means a single tall standing stone as a monument, especially one dating to prehistoric times.
What is menhir in Tamil?: Menhir in Tamil is குத்துக்கல் (kuttukkal). See Menhir meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is menhir?: Menhir is a noun.
How do you pronounce menhir?: Menhir is pronounced /ˈmɛnhɪə/ (UK).
What is the plural of menhir?: The plural of menhir is menhirs.

Words near menhir in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: menhir (page history and authors); menhir (Urdu Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-menhir.wav, En-us-menhir.oga.

Cite this entry: “menhir.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/menhir. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.