bastion
Americannoun
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Fortification. a projecting portion of a rampart or fortification that forms an irregular pentagon attached at the base to the main work.
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a fortified place.
- Synonyms:
- citadel, stronghold, bulwark, fort, fortress
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anything seen as preserving or protecting some quality, condition, etc..
a bastion of solitude; a bastion of democracy.
noun
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a projecting work in a fortification designed to permit fire to the flanks along the face of the wall
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any fortified place
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a thing or person regarded as upholding or defending an attitude, principle, etc
the last bastion of opposition
Other Word Forms
- bastionary adjective
- bastioned adjective
Etymology
Origin of bastion
1590–1600; < Middle French < Italian bastione, equivalent to Upper Italian bastí ( a ) bastion, originally, fortified, built (cognate with Italian bastita, past participle of bastire to build < Germanic; baste 1 ) + -one augmentative suffix
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Small towns, villages and hamlets -- home to around half of the central European nation's 9.5 million people -- have long been the bastion of the ruling Fidesz party.
From Barron's • Mar. 29, 2026
No one’s comfortable saying that that pop music should be a bastion of the wealthy, but solutions to that are not free-market solutions.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 10, 2026
The shift has opened the doors for the major streaming platforms to get more deeply involved in sports broadcasting rights, which have largely remained a bastion of traditional network television.
From MarketWatch • Feb. 6, 2026
In Israel’s early days, Ben-Gurion’s Mapai, the bastion of Labor Zionism, “was a party with its own state,” Mr. Segal observes.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 28, 2025
Sir Peter had stood all of one night on the bastion directing and encouraging the men.
From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
