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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

buttress.

A brick, concrete or stone structure built against another structure to support it.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbʌtɹəs/UK/ˈbʌtɹɪs/US
  1. A brick, concrete or stone structure built against another structure to support it.

  2. Anything that serves to support something; a prop.

    broadly
  3. A buttress root.

  4. A feature jutting prominently out from a mountain or rock.

  5. Anything that supports or strengthens.

    figuratively
Where this word comes from

From Old French ars bouterez (noun, literally “supporting arcs”), from bouterez (adjective), oblique plural of bouteret (rare in the singular), from Frankish *bôtan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to push”). Ultimately cognate with beat.

verb/ˈbʌtɹəs/UK/ˈbʌtɹɪs/US
  1. To support something physically with, or as if with, a prop or buttress.

  2. To support something or someone by supplying evidence.

    broadly · figuratively
Where this word comes from

From Old French ars bouterez (noun, literally “supporting arcs”), from bouterez (adjective), oblique plural of bouteret (rare in the singular), from Frankish *bôtan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to push”). Ultimately cognate with beat.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.