Rosetta Stone
noun/rəʊˌzetə ˈstəʊn/
/rəʊˌzetə ˈstəʊn/
[singular]- something, especially a discovery, that helps people to understand or find an explanation for a mystery or an area of knowledge that not much was known aboutCultureThe same text is written on the Rosetta Stone three times in three different types of writing, including hieroglyphics (= Egyptian writing). This enabled the French language expert Jean-François Champollion (1790-1832) to read hieroglyphics for the first time.Word OriginFrom the name of an ancient stone with writing in three different languages on it that was found near Rosetta in Egypt in 1799. It has helped archaeologists to understand and translate many other ancient Egyptian texts.
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Rosetta Stone