Definition of "pediment" [ped•i•ment]

• A wide, low-pitched gable surmounting the façade of a building in the Grecian style. (noun)
• A triangular element, similar to or derivative of a Grecian pediment, used widely in architecture and decoration. (noun)
• Geology A broad, gently sloping rock surface at the base of a steeper slope, often covered with alluvium, formed primarily by erosion. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Supporting the pediment were a pair of beautiful, naked women—caryatids, she remembered from college art class—who, like Joss, accepted their fate with unblinking stoicism."
• "The beauty of the marble from which stones and columns were cut might have seemed enough, but the builders carved groups of figures in the three-cornered space (called the pediment) in front between the roof and the stones resting upon the columns."
• "Above the pediment is a canopy with the Virgin and"