spire

CEFRB2

/spaɪə/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A tall pointed structure, especially on top of a building.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A young shoot of a plant; a spear.

Examples

  • A church spire could be seen in the distance.

  • To the west a dark church spire rose up against a marigold sky.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Any of various tall grasses, rushes, or sedges, such as the marram, the reed canary-grass, etc.

  2. The stalk or stem of a plant.

  3. A sharp or tapering point.

More examples

In context

  • The spire of the church rose high above the town.

  • Clara had pulled a button from a hollyhock spire, and was breaking it to get the seeds.

  • A beech wood with silver firs in it rolled down the face of the hill, and the maze of leafless twigs and dusky spires cut sharp against the soft blueness of the evening sky.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The church's tall blank pointed toward the sky above the village.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English spire, spyre, spier, spir, from Old English spīr, from Proto-Germanic *spīrō, *spīrǭ (“peak; point; tip; stalk”). Cognate with Dutch spier, German Low German Spier, German Spier, Spiere, Danish spir, Norwegian spir and spire, Swedish spira, Icelandic spíra.