Other forms: landmarks
A landmark is a famous building or place everyone recognizes, like a great tower. A famous landmark, a listed landmark, use it as a landmark.
The word first meant a boundary marker, and moving one was a serious crime in old law. A landmark ruling or decision is one that changes what follows. People navigate by landmarks rather than by maps, which is why removing one disorients a whole neighbourhood.
1nounlandmarkA famous building or place everyone recognises.
“The Eiffel Tower is the most famous landmark in Paris.”
2nounguideSomething easy to see and recognise, which tells you where you are or which way to go.
“Turn left at the church; it is the only landmark on that road.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Old English landmearc means a boundary, from land plus mearc, a mark. Moving one was once a serious offence.
Proto-West Germanic
*landamarku — boundary, landmark
Old English
landmearc — boundary
Middle English
*landmark
English, today
landmark
From Middle English landmark, from Old English landmearc (“boundary”), from Proto-West Germanic landamarku (“boundary, landmark”). Equivalent to land + mark. Cognate with German Landmarke (“landmark”), Danish landemærke (“landmark”), Swedish landmärke (“landmark”), Norwegian landemerke (“landmark”) and Faroese landamark (“land frontier”). Compare also Middle English londes-mark (“boundary”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA