pyramid
Pronunciation: /ˈpɪrəmɪd/
noun
- 1a monumental structure with a square or triangular base and sloping sides that meet in a point at the top, especially one built of stone as a royal tomb in ancient Egypt.
- 2an object, shape, or arrangement in the form of a pyramid: a pyramid of logs
- Geometry a polyhedron of which one face is a polygon of any number of sides, and the other faces are triangles with a common vertex: a three-sided pyramid
- Anatomy a structure of more or less pyramidal form, especially in the brain or the renal medulla.
- an organization or system that is structured with fewer people or things at each level as one approaches the top: the lowest strata of the social pyramid
- (pyramids) a game played on a billiard table with fifteen coloured balls arranged in a triangle and a cue ball.
- 3a system of financial growth achieved by a small initial investment, with subsequent investments being funded by using unrealized profits as collateral: the eventual collapse of illegal pyramids
- a form of investment in which each paying participant recruits two further participants, with returns being given to early participants using money contributed by later ones.
verb
Origin:
late Middle English (in the geometrical sense): via Latin from Greek puramis, puramid-, of unknown ultimate origin