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spire

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spire¹

  • /spaɪə/ UK
  • /ˈspaɪ.ə/ UK
  • /ˈspaɪ.ɚ/ US

Sounds like spier · Rhymes with -aɪə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

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.

noun spires

  1. archaic The stalk or stem of a plant.
  2. A young shoot of a plant; a spear. Clara had pulled a button from a hollyhock spire, and was breaking it to get the seeds.
  3. Any of various tall grasses, rushes, or sedges, such as the marram, the reed canary-grass, etc.
  4. A sharp or tapering point. 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.
  5. A tapering structure built on a roof or tower, especially as one of the central architectural features of a church or cathedral roof. The spire of the church rose high above the town.

    Similar: steeple

  6. The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit. the spire and top of praises
  7. A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the charge in blasting.

verb spires · spiring · spired

  1. of a seed to sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate. In gentle Ladies breste and bounteous race / Of woman kind it fayrest Flowre doth spyre, / And beareth fruit of honour and all chast desyre.
  2. To grow upwards rather than develop horizontally.
  3. transitive To furnish with a spire.

spire²

  • /spaɪə/ UK
  • /ˈspaɪ.ə/ UK
  • /ˈspaɪ.ɚ/ US

Sounds like spier · Rhymes with -aɪə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

From Old French spirer, and its source, Latin spīrō (“to breathe”).

verb spires · spiring · spired

  1. intransitive, obsolete To breathe.

spire³

  • /spaɪə/ UK
  • /ˈspaɪ.ə/ UK
  • /ˈspaɪ.ɚ/ US

Sounds like spier · Rhymes with -aɪə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

From Middle French spire.

noun spires

  1. One of the sinuous foldings of a serpent or other reptile; a coil. A dragon's fiery form bely'd the god: Sublime on radiant spires he rode.
  2. A spiral.
  3. The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: steeple, spit, spike, broach, arrowhead, coil, arrow, pinch, boom, deflection, spica, stalk, spicule, spirem, spicula, stem

Translations

Every language

noun tapering architectural structure

Españolchapitel, aguja
한국어첨탑 cheomtap
日本語尖塔 sentō
中文尖塔 jiāntǎ, 尖頂 /尖顶 jiānding
Portuguêsagulha, flecha, coruchéu
Françaisflèche
DeutschTurmspitze, Turmhelm
Italianoguglia, pinnacolo, cuspide
Русскийшпиль špilʹ, шпиц špic

noun top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit

Portuguêstopo, ápice, cume, cúpula
Italianopunta
Русскийверху́шка verxúška, маку́шка makúška

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Cite this
MLA

"spire." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/spire. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

spire. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/spire

Chicago

"spire." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/spire.

BibTeX
@misc{spire_2026,
  title = {spire},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/spire},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}