bastion

noun

bas·​tion ˈbas-chən 

1

: a projecting part of a fortification

a bastion at each of the fort's five corners

2

: a fortified area or position

bombing island bastions

3

: stronghold sense 2

the last bastion of academic standards

—Amer. Scientist

bastioned

ˈbas-chənd 

adjective

Did you know?

Bastion is related to bastille (a word now used as a general term for a prison, but probably best known as the name of the Parisian fortress-turned-prison stormed by an angry mob at the start of the French Revolution). It comes from the Italian verb bastire, which means "to build."

Synonyms

• castle
• citadel
• fastness
• fort
• fortification
• fortress
• hold
• redoubt
• stronghold

Examples of bastion in a Sentence

the rebel army retreated to its bastion in the mountains to regroup

Recent Examples on the Web

While some people may see certain platforms as a breeding ground for hate speech, others may see them as the last bastion of free speech. —Expert Panel®, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2024

The venue was City College in Harlem, a working class bastion of higher education that’s been minting Nobel laureates and business tycoons for more than a century. —Dan Morrison, USA TODAY, 24 Oct. 2024

Oh is a case study in the difficulties that an Asian-American conservative might face in his political career, especially in a city that, unlike the Vietnamese bastions of Garden Grove and Westminster in Orange County, is less than 10 percent Asian. —Yiyun Li, Harper's Magazine, 23 Oct. 2024

As the last remaining bastion of sanity, patience, and responsibility in the self-sabotaging Meyerowitz clan, Stiller is heartbreakingly real. —Sean Malin, Vulture, 5 Sep. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Middle French, borrowed from Italian bastione, from bastia "small quadrangular fortress" (from an Upper Italian counterpart to Tuscan bastita, from feminine past participle of bastire "to build," probably borrowed from Old Occitan bastir "to weave, build," or its Gallo-Romance ancestor) + -one, augmentative suffix (going back to Latin -ō, -ōn-, suffix of nouns denoting persons with a prominent feature) — more at bastille

First Known Use

1546, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

bastion

noun

bas·​tion ˈbas-chən 

: some place or something that gives protection against attack

a bastion of democracy