Nilometer

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.

Lanchester concludes that “words longer mean what they once did. It is not a process intended to deceive, but, like the Nilometer, it confines knowledge to a priesthood—the priesthood of people who can speak money.”

From Forbes • Aug. 7, 2014

A great book is the Nilometer which measures intellectual life as the original Nilometer measured the life and fertility of the land of Egypt.

From Toasts and Forms of Public Address for Those Who Wish to Say the Right Thing in the Right Way by Pittenger, William

This Nilometer is an ancient octagon pillar of red stone in the island of Rhoda, on the sides of which graduated scales are engraved.

From Visits To Monasteries in the Levant by Curzon, Robert

Now they stood again in the first hall, and, pointing to the Nilometer, Amram said, "Famine!"

From Historical Miniatures by Strindberg, August

The priests proclaimed how the flood stood on the Nilometer, and the husbandman made corresponding preparations for a scanty or an abundant harvest.

From History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2) Revised Edition by Draper, John William