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From Middle English piler, from Old French pilier, from Medieval Latin or Vulgar Latin *pilāre (“a pillar”), from Latin pila (“a pillar, pier, mole”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪlə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪlɚ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪllə(r)/
• Rhymes: -ɪlə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: pil‧lar

pillar (plural pillars)

1. (architecture) A large post, often used as supporting architecture.
2. Something resembling such a structure.

   a pillar of smoke

3. (figuratively) An essential part of something that provides support.

   He's a pillar of the community.

   • 1992, Richard Nixon, “The Pacific Triangle”, in Seize the Moment‎^[1], Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 181:

     In the Shanghai Communiqué of 1972, we recognized the fact that both Beijing and Taipei viewed Taiwan as part of China but unequivocally expressed our support for a peaceful settlement of the unification issue. While we should not alter the fundamental pillars of our policy, we should consider certain steps that will raise Taiwan's international standing.

   • 2016, Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea, spoken by CJ (Christian Mallen):

     Star Trek is one of the pillars of modern entertainment.

4. (Roman Catholicism) A portable ornamental column, formerly carried before a cardinal, as emblematic of his support to the church.
   • a. 1529, John Skelton, a poem:

     two laye-men secular
     eache of theym holdynge a pillar
     In their hondes, steade of a mace

5. The centre of the volta, ring, or manege ground, around which a horse turns.
6. (bodybuilding) The body from the hips over the core to the shoulders.
7. (geology) A vertical, often spire-shaped, natural rock formation.

• column, sile

pillar (third-person singular simple present pillars, present participle pillaring, simple past and past participle pillared)

1. (transitive) To provide with or added strength as if from pillars.
   • 1910, James Morgan, Blast furnace practice:

     Insufficient penetration, or faulty distribution of the blast, may give rise to "pillaring" — that is, the formation of a pillar or column of cold material extending up through the middle of the hearth

   • 1996, National Academy of Engineering, First annual Symposium on Frontiers of Engineering, page 25:

     We discovered this new class of compounds in our search for a means of generating porosity by pillaring layered double hydroxides

   • 1998, Zhong Lin Wang with Zhen Chuan Kang, Functional and smart materials, page 226:

     In the pillaring-grafting reaction the dimensionality increases by pillaring the organic or precursory polynuclear metal hydroxyl cations into an inorganic layer structured matrix.

   • 2004, Scott M. Auerbach with Kathleen A. Carrado and Prabir K. Dutta, Handbook of layered materials, page 261:

     It was then that scientists started to create porosity in the interlayer space of layered clays. developing the first pillared clays with pores in the larger microporous region.

• caterpillar

• “pillar”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “pillar”, in The Century Dictionary[…], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “pillar”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “pillar”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

• Aprill

Borrowed from French piller. The sense of "grab" is from Italian pigliare, either via direct borrowing or through the mediation of Spanish pillar.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [piˈʎa]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [piˈʎaɾ]
• Rhymes: -a(ɾ)

pillar (first-person singular present pillo, first-person singular preterite pillí, past participle pillat)

1. (transitive) to pillage, plunder, loot
2. (transitive, colloquial) to snatch, grab

   Synonyms: agafar, prendre

• pillada
• pillatge

• pillard

• “pillar”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “pillar”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026

pillar m (plural pillares)

1. pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of pilar

Probably borrowed from Italian pigliare or French piller. Compare also Portuguese pilhar and English pillage.

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: pi‧llar

pillar (first-person singular present pillo, first-person singular preterite pillé, past participle pillado)

1. to catch, get, to grab (e.g. grab a cab, get lunch, grab a drink, catch a movie)
2. to pilfer, steal
3. (games) to tag
4. (colloquial) to get (a joke)
5. (colloquial) to catch, to catch up to
6. (colloquial) to catch, to pick up, to bust, to nab (someone doing something illegal)

   Synonyms: atrapar, sorprender

7. (colloquial) to come down with, catch, to pick up (an illness)
8. (colloquial) to pick up on, to take (e.g. information, a hint)
9. (Spain, colloquial) to score (e.g. drugs)
10. (colloquial, reflexive) to jam (your finger)

    Me pillé el dedo con la puerta.

    I jammed my finger in the door.

11. (colloquial, reflexive) to fall in love, to crush on someone

    Creo que se ha pillado de mí.

    I think she may have a crush on me.

• agarrar
• asir

• “pillar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

pillar

1. indefinite plural of pille

pillar

1. present indicative of pilla

• prilla

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