Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A temple tower of ancient Mesopotamia, having the form of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A temple tower of the Babylonians or Assyrians, consisting of a lofty pyramidal structure, built in successive stages, with outside staircases, and a shrine at the top; -- called also zikkurat.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A temple tower of the ancient Mesopotamian valley, having the form of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a rectangular tiered temple or terraced mound erected by the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Akkadian ziqqurratu, temple tower, from zaqāru, to build high; see zqr in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Akkadian ziqqurratu, from zaqāru.

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Examples

Comments

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  • so much cooler than a pyramid

    February 12, 2007

  • Jaz Coleman and Anne Dudley recorded a beautiful album entitled The Victorious City "way back" in 1990.

    One of my favorite tracks from the album is entitled Ziggarats(sic) Of Cinnamon. All ziggurats should be made of cinnamon and/or chocolate.

    Oddly, the Playstation 2 series Xenosaga featured a cyborg character named Ziggurat 8, presumably as excuse to give the space-mercenary the nickname Ziggy (in reference to David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust persona).

    I secretly imagined it was because his cold metal exterior shell was hiding a centre of pure cinnamon and/or chocolate.

    March 23, 2007

  • ...and easier to climb, AZ.

    March 26, 2007