Other forms: monoliths
A monolith is a single great block of stone, or an unchanging body. A stone monolith.
The figurative sense describes an organisation treated as one thing when it is not. Calling a country or a company a monolith is nearly always a simplification.
1nounmonolithA single great block of stone, or an unchanging body.
“The monolith at the crossroads had stood there four thousand years.”
monolith is a block.
French monolithe comes from Greek monolithos, one stone, from monos plus lithos.
Proto-Indo-European
*men- (small)
Proto-Indo-European
*mey- — little, small
Ancient Greek
μονόλιθος — made from a single block of stone
Latin
monolithus — made from a single block of stone
Middle French
monolythe — made from a single block of stone
French
monolithe — object made from a single block of stone
English, today
monolith
Built from
The noun is borrowed from French monolithe (“object made from a single block of stone”), from Middle French monolythe (“made from a single block of stone”) rare, and from their etymon Latin monolithus (“made from a single block of stone”), from Ancient Greek μονόλιθος (“made from a single block of stone”), from μονο- (from μόνος (“alone; only, unique”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European mey- (“little, small”)) + λίθος (“a stone; stone as a substance”); analysable as mono + lith. The English word is cognate with German monolith (“made from a single block of stone”). The verb is derived from the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA