spire

Plural: spires

Noun

• a tall tower that forms the superstructure of a building (usually a church or temple) and that tapers to a point at the top
• The stalk or stem of a plant.
• A young shoot of a plant; a spear.
• Any of various tall grasses, rushes, or sedges, such as the marram, the reed canary-grass, etc.
• A sharp or tapering point.
• A tapering structure built on a roof or tower, especially as one of the central architectural features of a church or cathedral roof.
• The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit.
• A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the charge in blasting.
• One of the sinuous foldings of a serpent or other reptile; a coil.
• A spiral.
• The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole.

Verb

Verb Forms: spired, spiring, spires

• To rise or taper to a point, like a steeple or peak.
• to sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate.
• To grow upwards rather than develop horizontally.
• To furnish with a spire.
• To breathe.

Examples

• His Scrabble score began to SPIRE upwards after a series of smart plays.
• The spire of the church rose high above the town.

Synonyms

steeple

Anagrams of spire