Spire

How to spell spire

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce spire

What does spire mean?

1. nounA tall, slender, pointed structure rising from the top of a tower or building, especially a church.

Spire in a sentence

• The cathedral spire was visible from across the valley.

• Restorers spent two years repairing the stone spire above the bell tower.

Where does spire come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from the Old English spir, which meant a tall, slender stalk, a blade of grass, or a young shoot of a plant. It belongs to a wider Germanic family of words for thin, tapering growth, and relatives turn up in Dutch and German with senses like 'sprout' or 'point'. Over time the idea of something narrow rising to a point shifted from plants to architecture, and by the 1500s the word was being used for the tall, pointed top of a church tower. The slender, upward-reaching shape is the thread that links the original blade of grass to the modern church steeple. The silent final -e is a spelling convention that signals the long 'i' sound, just as it does in 'fire' and 'wire'.

How the word is built

• spir (Old English: tall slender stalk or shoot)
• silent -e