Rosetta Stone
Pronunciation: /rə(ʊ)ˈzɛtə/
- an inscribed stone found near Rosetta (now called Rashid) in Egypt in1799. Its text is written in three scripts: hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek. The deciphering of the hieroglyphs by Jean-François Champollion in 1822 led to the interpretation of many other early records of Egyptian civilization.
- (as noun a Rosetta stone) a key to some previously undecipherable mystery or unattainable knowledge: zero point energy could be the Rosetta stone of physics