0 a stone in a corner of a building, especially one with the date when the building was made or other writing on it
1 a large stone near the base of a building where two walls meet, often giving information about the building and sometimes put in position with a ceremony:
2 something of great importance on which everything else depends:
The cornerstones of therapeutic social dementia care - reminiscence and validation therapy - have in common their acknowledgement of the sense of self of the person with dementia.
Philosophical training was seen as an asset, but scientific know-how and a good grip of the field under scrutiny were seen as the most important cornerstones of evaluation.
The freedom to enter into, and sustain, such relationships is one of the cornerstones of adulthood (although this representation has been highly gendered in social policy terms).
Chapter 3 begins with an outline of the two linguistic principles that are the cornerstones of the 1996 reform - that is, the phonological and semantic principles of orthography.
Other important cornerstones of regional policy in the years to come will be additionality in funding, cross-sectoral cooperation and conditionality.
The right to privacy, to information freedom and to fair and proper trial are the cornerstones of a free and open society.
Qualifications and their mutual recognition are one of the cornerstones of transport policy, as is working time.
The cornerstones of these relationships are the common values and the similar interests that we share.