Word.ws English Dictionary

palladian

Syllables: Pal·lad·i·an/pəˈleɪdɪən/US/pəˈleɪdiən/

palladian adjective: containing tetravalent palladium.

Adjective (1)

palladian (not comparable)

  1. Containing tetravalent palladium.

Adjective (2) capitalized: Palladian

Palladian (not comparable)

  1. (Greek, rare) Of or relating to Pallas, an epithet of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and potentially to other female Greek figures such as Pallas the daughter of Triton and granddaughter of Poseidon.
    • [I]f in this the moſt conſummat act of his fidelity and ripeneſſe, no years, no induſtry, no former proof of his abilities can bring him to that ſtate of maturity, as not to be ſtill miſtruſted and ſuſpected, unleſſe he carry all his conſiderat diligence, all his midnight watchings, and expence of...1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 21
    • I dwell upon this point, in the view of explaining and, as to one letter, correcting a memorable passage of Sophocles concerning the Palladian olive tree; in which he says, that it is a plant, preserved by Jove and Athena, in order to confound the enemies of Athens, and adds "that no man, young or...1828, [Algernon Herbert], “Ba-bel”, in Nimrod: A Discourse on Certain Passages of History and Fable, volume I, London: Printed for Richard Priestley, →OCLC, pages 192–193
  2. (broadly, rare) Of or relating to knowledge, study, or wisdom.
  3. of or pertaining to the asteroid Pallas
    • the object 3200 Phaethon, which is thought to be a Palladian asteroid

Adjective (3) capitalized: Palladian

Palladian (not comparable)

  1. In the style of the Italian neoclassical architect Andrea Palladio.
    • You ſhow us, Rome was glorious, not profuſe, / And pompous Buildings once were things of uſe. / Yet ſhall (my Lord) your juſt, your noble Rules / Fill half the land with Imitating Fools: / […] / Conſcious they act a true Palladian part, / And if they ſtarve, they ſtarve by the Rules of Art.1735, Alexander Pope, “[Ethic Epistles, the Second Book. To Several Persons.] Epistle IV. To Richard Earl of Burlington.”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume II, London: […] J. Wright, for...
    • His [William Kent's] claim to this fellowship to the Palladian school rests upon the felicitous manner in which he caught its sentiment, and the rich and varied assistance he threw into the Palladian structure.1841 June, Frederick East, “The Palladian School of Architects”, in The Civil Engineer and Architect’s Journal, Scientific and Railway Gazette, volume IV, number 45, London: Published for the...

Noun capitalized: Palladian

Palladian (plural Palladians)

  1. An architect who designs buildings in the Palladian style.
    • What is quite certain that Georgian Palladianism without him [Colen Campbell] would have developed later and would have been quite different, and the legacy of the English Palladians, accepted but rarely acknowledged by their most adventurous but no more dedicated successors, would have been less...1967, Howard E. Stutchbury, “Conclusion”, in The Architecture of Colen Campbell, Manchester: Manchester University Press, →OCLC, page 144
    • [Peter Paul] Rubens' credo could be a rubric for [Joseph] Furttenbach's work. He is not a Palladian like [Heinrich von] Schickhardt, but takes up Italian Renaissance architecture in a both geographically and temporally broad span, attempting to make it a model for Central European requirements.1994, Hanno-Walter Kruft, “The German-speaking Regions in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”, in Ronald Taylor, Elsie Callander, Antony Wood, transl., A History of Architectural Theory from...
  2. A building or an architectural element (for example, a window) designed in the Palladian style.
    • Anything [i.e., any type of window] with a rounded top became known as a Palladian and was seen as an instant evocation of history, status, class, and tradition. In some cases, an oversized Palladian filled an entire facade of a house.2001, Alastair Gordon, “Epilogue: Past Perfect”, in Weekend Utopia: Modern Living in the Hamptons, New York, N.Y.: Princeton Architectural Press, →ISBN, page 166, column 1
    • From the outside, Strokestown House is a most attractive building. [...] And unlike some of the monster Palladians in this country, places like Castletown or Powerscourt, both near Dublin, Strokestown, being in the uncivilized west, is a far more modest proposition and thereby more appealing and...2002, James Charles Roy, “The Work of Angels”, in The Back of Beyond: A Search for the Soul of Ireland, Boulder, Colo.; Oxford, Oxfordshire: Westview Press, →ISBN

Forms of palladian

pluralPalladians

Origin of palladian

From palladium + -ian.

From Latin Palladius (“of or relating to Pallas”) + -an (suffix forming adjectives from nouns). Palladius is derived from Pallas (from Ancient Greek Παλλάς (Pallás), genitive Παλλάδος (Palládos), an epithet of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom) + -ius (suffix forming adjectives from nouns).

From Italian Palladio, the surname of Andrea Palladio (1508–1580) + -an (suffix forming adjectives from nouns).

Words formed from palladian

Phrases with palladian

Words that rhyme with palladian

Questions about palladian

What does palladian mean?
Palladian means containing tetravalent palladium.
What part of speech is palladian?
Palladian can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce palladian?
Palladian is pronounced /pəˈleɪdɪən/ (UK).

Words near palladian in the dictionary

  1. palladate
  2. palladates
  3. palladation
  4. palladations
  5. palladia
  6. palladian
  7. Palladian window
  8. Palladian windows
  9. Palladianism
  10. Palladianize
  11. palladianized

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: palladian (page history and authors); Palladian (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-Palladian.oga.

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