spire
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A tall tower that forms the superstructure of a building and that tapers to a point at the top.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
spyrIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈspaɪɹ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A tall tower that forms the superstructure of a building (usually a church or temple) and that tapers to a point at the top
A sharp or tapering point.
The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit.
architecture
A tapering structure built on a roof or tower, especially as one of the central architectural features of a church or cathedral roof.
A young shoot of a plant; a spear.
Any of various tall grasses, rushes, or sedges, such as the marram, the reed canary-grass, etc.
verb
To grow upwards rather than develop horizontally.
transitive
To furnish with a spire.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A tall tower that forms the superstructure of a building (usually a church or temple) and that tapers to a point at the top
Used this way, spire is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: tall tower that forms the superstructure of a building (usually a church
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.