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masonry

UK/ˈmeɪsənɹi/US/ˈmeɪsənɹi/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,958 of 15,258mostly written

Masonry is stone or brickwork, taken as a whole. Crumbling masonry, repoint the masonry, solid masonry.

It is strong in compression and weak in tension, which is why masonry buildings use arches and thick walls rather than beams. Repointing — replacing the mortar between the units — is the standard repair. Note freemasonry, which took its name and its symbols from the stonemasons' craft guilds.

Jamain · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of masonry

  1. 1nounmasonryStone or brickwork taken as a whole.C1

    “Chunks of masonry fell from the old church tower during the earthquake.”

masonry is a building material.

Where it comes from

Old French maconerie comes from macon, a mason, of Germanic origin. Mason and masonry come together.

  1. Old French

    maçonerie

  2. Middle English

    masonry

  3. English, today

    masonry

From Middle English masonry, masonrie, partly from Old French maçonerie and partly from mason + -ry.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Buildings & Architecture, Rocks & Minerals

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masonry in the wild

  • A brick is a type of building material used to build walls, pavements, and other elements in masonry construction.

    Brick

  • The common materials of masonry construction are bricks and building stone; rocks such as granite, marble, and limestone; cast stone, concrete blocks, glass blocks, and adobe.

    Masonry

  • The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of masonry.

    Bricklayer

  • The most famous examples of Cyclopean masonry are found in the walls of Mycenae and Tiryns, and the style is characteristic of Mycenaean fortifications.

    Cyclopean masonry

  • Pliny's Natural History reported the tradition, attributed to Aristotle, that the Cyclopes were the inventors of masonry towers, giving rise to the designation "Cyclopean".

    Cyclopean masonry

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.