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From French monolithique.



monolithic (comparative more monolithic, superlative most monolithic)

  1. Of or resembling a monolith; thus:
    1. Consisting of a single chunk of hard material rather than an assembly of discrete parts.
      This model dispenses with folding parts and presents a monolithic chunk of titanium with facets for cutting, wrenching, and prying.
    2. (figuratively) Having a massive, unchanging structure that does not permit individual variation.
      Variety in subcultures is predictable and obvious, but even mainstream culture is hardly the monolithic bloc that its caricaturization often implies.
      • 2017, Adam Rutherford, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, The Experiment, →ISBN, page 71:
        Farming today is industrial, and dominated by monolithic corporations who control almost all the food we eat.
    3. (computing, figuratively, said of an operating system's kernel) consisting of a single program using a single memory-addressing space.


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