Towering

How to spell towering

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce towering

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does towering mean?

1. adjectiveExtremely tall or high, or figuratively very great in degree or importance.

Towering in a sentence

• The towering skyscraper dominated the city skyline.

• She felt small beside the towering cliffs above the beach.

Where does towering come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows out of the noun 'tower', which English took from the Old English 'torr' and reinforced through Old French 'tur', both ultimately tracing back to the Latin 'turris', meaning a tall, fortified building. By the late Middle Ages 'tower' had also become a verb meaning to rise high or soar, originally describing birds of prey climbing to a great height before stooping on their quarry. From that verb the present participle 'towering' developed, used as an adjective for anything that rises impressively high or, by extension, for emotions and reputations of great intensity, as in a 'towering rage'. The spelling is straightforward once you remember it is simply 'tower' plus '-ing', with the silent-feeling middle 'er' kept intact; the danger is dropping the 'e' and writing 'towring'. The same 'turris' root still stands inside the words 'turret' and the surname 'Turner' in some traditions.

How the word is built

• tower (from Latin turris: a tall structure)
• -ing (adjective suffix)