landmark

A landmark is anything that helps you know where you are — in space, in time, in history.

If you’re sailing from Europe to New York, the Statue of Liberty will be the landmark that lets you know you’re in the right port. If you’re walking to your cousin’s house, the pizza shop on the corner is the landmark that lets you know you just have two blocks to go. Getting your driver’s license is a landmark event, as was the Revolutionary War — though which battle was harder is yours to determine.

Definitions of landmark
  1. noun
    the position of a prominent or well-known object in a particular landscape
    “the church steeple provided a convenient landmark”
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    type of:
    place, position
    the particular portion of space occupied by something
  2. noun
    a mark showing the boundary of a piece of land
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    types:
    mearstone, meerestone, merestone
    an old term for a landmark that consisted of a pile of stones surmounted by an upright slab
    type of:
    point of reference, reference, reference point
    an indicator that orients you generally
  3. noun
    an event marking a unique or important historical change of course or one on which important developments depend
    synonyms: turning point, watershed
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    types:
    Fall of Man
    (Judeo-Christian mythology) when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, God punished them by driving them out of the Garden of Eden and into the world where they would be subject to sickness and pain and eventual death
    road to Damascus
    a sudden turning point in a person's life (similar to the sudden conversion of the Apostle Paul on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus of arrest Christians)
    type of:
    juncture, occasion
    an event that occurs at a critical time
  4. noun
    an anatomical structure used as a point of origin in locating other anatomical structures (as in surgery) or as point from which measurements can be taken
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    types:
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    craniometric point
    a landmark on the skull from which craniometric measurements can be taken
    acanthion
    the craniometric point at the anterior extremity of the intermaxillary suture
    asterion
    the craniometric point at the junction of the lamboid suture and the occipitomastoid suture and the parietomastoid suture
    auricular point, auriculare
    the craniometric point at the center of the opening of the external acoustic meatus
    bregma
    the craniometric point at the junction of the sagittal and coronal sutures at the top of the cranium
    condylion
    the craniometric point at the tip of the mandibular condyle
    coronion
    the craniometric point at the tip of the coronoid process of the mandible
    crotaphion
    the tip of the greater wing of the sphenoid bone
    dacryon
    the craniometric point at the junction of the anterior border of the lacrimal bone with the frontal bone
    entomion
    the craniometric point at the tip of the angular part of the parietal bone that articulates with the temporal bone
    glabella, mesophyron
    a smooth prominence of the frontal bone between and above the eyebrows; the most forward projecting point of the forehead in the midline at the level of the supraorbital ridges
    gnathion
    the most inferior point of the mandible in the midline
    gonion
    the craniometric point on either side at the apex of the lower jaw
    inion
    the craniometric point that is the most prominent point at the back of the head (at the occipital protuberance)
    jugal point, jugale
    the craniometric point at the union of the frontal and temporal processes of the zygomatic bone
    lambda
    the craniometric point at the junction of the sagittal and lamboid sutures of the skull
    mastoidale
    the craniometric point at the lowest point of the mastoid process
    metopion
    the craniometric point midway between the frontal eminences of the skull
    nasion
    the craniometric point at the bridge of the nose where the frontal and nasal bones of the skull meet
    obelion
    the craniometric point on the sagittal suture near the lamboid suture
    ophryon
    the craniometric point in the midline of the forehead immediately above the orbits
    orbital point, orbitale
    the craniometric point at the lowest point on the lower edge of the orbit
    pogonion
    the craniometric point that is the most forward-projecting point on the anterior surface of the chin
    alveolar point, prostheon, prosthion
    craniometric point that is the most anterior point in the midline on the alveolar process of the maxilla
    pterion
    the craniometric point in the region of the sphenoid fontanelle
    rhinion
    the anterior tip at the end of the suture of the nasal bones
    sphenion
    the anterior tip of the parietal bone
    stephanion
    the craniometric point on the coronal suture above the acoustic meatus
    symphysion
    the most forward point of the alveolar process of the mandible
    type of:
    anatomical structure, bodily structure, body structure, complex body part, structure
    a particular complex anatomical part of a living thing
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