spire

spire — noun

1. a tall narrow pointed feature that rises from the highest part of a religious bu

1.nounB2
Definition

a tall narrow pointed feature that rises from the highest part of a religious building and becomes gradually thinner towards its tip.

Example

The old church spire could be seen from every street in the village.

A pair of pigeons nested in a gap near the top of the stone spire.

collocation: stone spire

Common collocations
  • stone spire
  • golden spire
  • church spire
  • cathedral spire
  • tall spire
  • old spire
  • damage the spire
  • repair a spire
Synonyms
  • steeple

    a church tower with a spire on top; narrower in meaning — steeple includes the tower, while spire is just the pointed part

  • pinnacle

    a small pointed ornament on top of a roof or buttress, not necessarily on a church

  • minaret

    a tall thin tower on a mosque, from which people are called to prayer; different architectural tradition

Usage Note

Often paired with stone, golden, tall, or old to describe the material, colour, or age.

Common Mistakes

The church had a tall tower on its spire.
The church had a tall spire on its tower.
a spire sits on top of a tower, not the other way around.

spire — verb

Word family

  • spired
    adjectiveC1
  • spiring
    adjectiveC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

A spire is specifically the tall, tapering pointed top that sits on a building — most often a church or cathedral tower. The word focuses on the slender shape that narrows to a tip. A steeple includes the tower AND the spire on top; you cannot have a steeple without a spire, but you can have a spire without a steeple (for example, on a castle turret). A pinnacle is a smaller ornamental point found on roofs, buttresses, or railings — decorative rather than structural. A tower is a broad, tall building element that may be square or round, with or without a spire on top. A minaret is the tall, slender tower of a mosque, typically with a balcony but not necessarily a pointed spire. In everyday use: 'The church had a tall spire' is natural; 'We climbed to the top of the tower' is common; 'The building was decorated with stone pinnacles' is more architectural.

spire ↗steeplepinnacle ↗tower ↗minaret

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • top of the spire
  • base of the spire
  • spire of the church

Prepositions

Etymology

Old EnglishOld FrenchLatin

The word 'spire' has two separate origins that blended together in English. The first comes from Old English 'spīr', meaning a blade, stalk, or sprout — something long and thin that tapers at the end. The second comes from Old French 'espire' (modern French 'spire'), from Latin 'spira' meaning a coil, twist, or spiral. The architectural meaning (a pointed tower top) grew out of the first root, while the spiral-related verb uses came from the second. By the 1500s, both strands were established in English, and the idea of a tall, tapering shape became the most common meaning.