Other forms: pinnacles
The pinnacle is the highest point of achievement. Nothing above it, and only one way to go from there.
The figurative sense is the everyday one, and the pinnacle of a career, of a sport or of an art form are all standard phrases. It takes of. There is a literal architectural sense, since a pinnacle is the small pointed turret on a church or a castle, which is where the picture comes from. Mountains have pinnacles too. Its close relatives are peak, summit and zenith, and zenith is the most literary of them.
1nounpinnacleThe highest point of achievement or success.
“That season was the pinnacle of his career.”
2nounsmallA small pointed turret on a building, or a rocky peak.
“Stone pinnacles rose along the roofline.”
Also accepted in games: peak, summit
Latin
pinnāculum — a peak, pinnacle
Old French
pinacle
English, today
pinnacle
From Middle English -, borrowed from Old French pinacle, pinnacle, from Latin pinnāculum (“a peak, pinnacle”), from Latin pinna (“a pinnacle”); see pin. a doublet of panache.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA