keystone
pronunciation
How to pronounce keystone in British English:
UK [ˈki:stəʊn]
How to pronounce keystone in American English:
US [ˈkistoʊn]
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- Noun:
- a central cohesive source of support and stability
- the central building block at the top of an arch or vault
Word Origin
- keystone (n.)
- "stone in the middle of an arch, which holds up the others," 1630s, from key (n.1) in figurative sense of "that which holds together other parts" + stone. Figurative sense is from 1640s. Pennsylvania was called the Keystone State because of its position (geographical and political) in the original American confederation, between northern states and southern ones. Keystone cops were the bumbling police in the slapstick silent movies produced by Keystone Company, formed by Canadian-born U.S. film director Mack Sennett (1884-1960) in 1912.
Example
- 1. Transcanada is the company constructing keystone .
- 2. They 're what ecologists call a " keystone " species , who control the abundance every other species , but require a habitat of sufficient size to support those other creatures .
- 3. However , these reserve requirements were abolished by margaret thatcher in 1980 as a keystone in her free market revolution , so that by the late 1980s every control and regulation on city lending had been scrapped .