tower

See also: Tower

English

Alternative forms

• towre (obsolete)

Etymology 1

From Middle English tour, tur, tor, from Old English tūr, tor, torr ("tower; rock"; > English tor) and Old French tour, toer, tor; both from Latin turris (“a tower”). Compare Scots tour, towr, towre (“tower”), West Frisian toer (“tower”), Dutch toren (“tower”), German Turm (“tower”), Danish tårn (“tower”), Swedish torn (“tower”), Icelandic turn (“tower”), Welsh tŵr. See also tor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtaʊ.ə(ɹ)/
• IPA^(key): /ˈtaʊɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊ.ə(ɹ)

Noun

tower (plural towers)

A nineteenth century water tower

1. A very tall iron-framed structure, usually painted red and white, on which microwave, radio, satellite, or other communication antennas are installed; mast.
2. A similarly framed structure with a platform or enclosed area on top, used as a lookout for spotting fires, plane crashes, fugitives, etc.
3. A water tower.
4. A control tower.
5. Any very tall building or structure; skyscraper.

   The Sears Tower

6. (figuratively) Any item, such as a computer case, that is usually higher than it is wide.
7. (informal) An interlocking tower.
8. (figurative) A strong refuge; a defence.
   • Bible, Psalms lxi. 3

     Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.

9. (historical) A tall fashionable headdress worn in the time of King William III and Queen Anne.
   • (Can we date this quote by Hudibras and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     Lay trains of amorous intrigues / In towers, and curls, and periwigs.

10. (obsolete) High flight; elevation.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)

11. The sixteenth trump or Major Arcana card in many Tarot decks, usually deemed an ill omen.
12. (cartomancy) The nineteenth Lenormand card, representing structure, bureaucracy, stability and loneliness.

Synonyms

• donjon

Derived terms

terms derived from tower (noun)

• coaling tower
• control tower
• flare tower
• guardtower
• interlocking tower

• radio tower
• siege tower
• towerman
• tower of Babel
• towers of Hanoi

• tower of strength
• watchtower
• water tower

Descendants

• → German: Tower
• → Hindi: टावर (ṭāvar)
• → Japanese: タワー (tawā)
• → Korean: 타워 (tawo)
• → Punjabi: ਟਾਵਰ (ṭāvar)

Translations

structure

• Adyghe: щэчанэ (śɛčanɛ)
• Afrikaans: toring
• Albanian: kullë (sq) f
• Arabic: بُرْج m (burj)

  Egyptian Arabic: برج m (burg)

  Hijazi Arabic: بُرْج m (burj)

• Aragonese: torre f
• Armenian: աշտարակ (hy) (aštarak)
• Assamese: দুর্গ, মিনাৰ (minar)
• Asturian: torre f
• Avar: си (si)
• Azerbaijani: qala (az), qüllə (az), bürc, vışka
• Bashkir: башня (başnya)
• Basque: dorre
• Belarusian: ве́жа f (vjéža), вы́шка f (výška), це́рам m (cjéram)
• Bengali: মিনার (minar), দুর্গ (durgo)
• Breton: tour (br) m
• Bulgarian: ку́ла (bg) f (kúla)
• Burmese: ရဲတိုက် (my) (rai:tuik)
• Catalan: torre (ca) f
• Chechen: бӏов (bˀov)
• Cherokee: ᎡᏆ (equa)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 塔 (taap³)

  Hakka: 塔 (thap)

  Mandarin: 塔樓／塔楼 (zh) (tǎlóu), 塔楼 (zh) (tǎlóu), 塔 (zh) (tǎ), 樓閣／楼阁 (zh) (lóugé), 楼阁 (zh) (lóugé), 樓臺／楼台 (zh) (lóutái), 楼台 (zh) (lóutái)

  Min Bei: 塔 (tă)

  Min Dong: 塔 (ták)

  Min Nan: 塔 (zh-min-nan) (thap)

  Wu: 塔 (thaq)

• Classical Syriac: ܡܓܕܠܐ m (maḡdlā)
• Czech: věž (cs) f
• Danish: tårn (da) n
• Dutch: toren (nl) m
• Erzya: палманьгудо (palmańgudo), сярдак (śardak)
• Esperanto: turo
• Estonian: torn (et)
• Faroese: torn n
• Finnish: torni (fi)
• French: tour (fr) f

  Middle French: tour f

  Old French: tor f

• Galician: torre (gl) f, crochel m, caramanchel m
• Georgian: კოშკი (ḳošḳi), გოდოლი (ka) (godoli)
• German: Turm (de) m

  Alemannic German: Durm m

  Bavarian: Tuam m

• Greek: πύργος (el) m (pýrgos)

  Ancient: πύργος m (púrgos)

• Gujarati: બુરજ (buraj)
• Hebrew: מִגְדָּל (he) m (migdal)
• Hindi: टावर (hi) m (ṭāvar), लाट (hi) m (lāṭ), अटारी (hi) f (aṭārī), बुर्ज (hi) m (burj)
• Hungarian: torony (hu)
• Icelandic: turn (is) m
• Ido: turmo (io)
• Igbo: ulọ aja, ugẹle
• Ilocano: torre
• Indonesian: menara (id)
• Irish: túr m
• Italian: torre (it) f
• Japanese: 塔 (ja) (とう, tō), タワー (ja) (tawā)
• Javanese: menara (jv)
• Kalmyk: цамхаг (tsamxag)
• Kannada: ಮೇರುವೆ (kn) (mēruve)
• Kazakh: мұнара (kk) (mūnara)
• Khmer: ប៉ម (km) (pɑɑm), ប្រាង្គ (km) (praang)
• Korean: 탑 (ko) (tap), 타워 (ko) (tawo)
• Kyrgyz: мунара (ky) (munara), бурана (ky) (burana)
• Lao: ຫໍ (hǭ), ຫໍຄອຢ (hǭ khǭy)
• Latin: turris (la) f
• Latvian: tornis m
• Limburgish: toeare (li) m
• Lithuanian: bokštas m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Low German:

  German Low German: Toorn m

• Luxembourgish: Tuerm m
• Macedonian: кула f (kula)
• Malagasy: tilikambo (mg)
• Malay: menara
• Malayalam: ഗോപുരം (ml) (gōpuraṁ)
• Maltese: borġ m, torri m
• Manchu: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: pourewa, pūhara, pūwhara
• Marathi: मनोरा m (manorā)
• Mari:

  Eastern Mari:

• Mongolian: цамхаг (mn) (camxag)
• Nahuatl: tlapilkoyan
• Nepali: please add this translation if you can
• Northern Sami: toardna
• Norwegian Bokmål: tårn (no) n
• Occitan: torre (oc) f
• Old Church Slavonic: нꙑръ (nyrŭ)
• Old East Slavic: вѣжа (věža), нꙑръ (nyrŭ)
• Old English: stīepel m, torr m
• Old Occitan: torre
• Old Portuguese: torre
• Ossetian: мӕсыг (mæsyg), гӕнах (gænax)
• Pashto: برج (ps) m (borǰ)
• Persian: برج (fa) (borj)
• Polish: wieża (pl) f, baszta (pl) f, stołp (pl) (bergfried)
• Portuguese: torre (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਟਾਵਰ m (ṭāvar), ਬੁਰਜ m (burj)
• Quechua: turri
• Romanian: turn (ro) n
• Romansch: tur m
• Russian: ба́шня (ru) f (bášnja), вы́шка (ru) f (výška), ве́жа (ru) f (véža) (archaic), те́рем (ru) m (térem)
• Samoan: olo
• Samogitian: buokšts m
• Scots: tour
• Scottish Gaelic: tùr m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: торањ m

  Roman: toranj (sh) m

• Sicilian: turri f
• Sinhalese: කුළුණ (kuḷuṇa)
• Situ: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: veža (sk) f
• Slovene: stolp (sl) m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: torm m

• Spanish: torre (es) f
• Swahili: mnara class 1/2
• Swedish: torn (sv)
• Tagalog: tore
• Tajik: бурҷ (tg) (burj), манора (manora)
• Tamil: கோபுரம் (ta) (kōpuram)
• Tatar: манара (tt) (manara)
• Thai: หอ (th) (hɔ̌ɔ), หอคอย (th) (hɔ̌ɔ-kɔɔi)
• Tibetan: ཁང་ཀྲོང (khang krong), ཁང་པ་མཐོ་པོ་ཀྲོང་ཀྲོང (khang pa mtho po krong krong)
• Turkish: kule (tr)
• Turkmen: minara, wyşka
• Ukrainian: ба́шта (uk) f (bášta), ве́жа (uk) f (véža), ви́шка (uk) f (výška), те́рем m (térem)
• Urdu: ٹاور m (ṭāvar), برج m (burj), مینار m (mīnār)
• Uyghur: مۇنار (munar)
• Uzbek: minora (uz), burj (uz), bashnya (uz), vishka (uz)
• Vietnamese: tháp (vi)
• Walloon: tour (wa) f
• Welsh: tŵr (cy) m
• West Frisian: toer c
• Western Panjabi: برج m (burj), مینار
• Yiddish: טורעם m (turem)
• Zhuang: dap

(figuratively) any item that is higher than it is wide

• Catalan: torre (ca) f
• Czech: věž (cs) f
• Danish: tårn (da) n
• Dutch: toren (nl) m
• Finnish: torni (fi)
• German: Turm (de) m
• Japanese: タワー (ja) (tawā)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: wieża (pl) f
• Romanian: turlă (ro) f, turn (ro) n
• Russian: ба́шня (ru) f (bášnja)
• Scots: tour
• Scottish Gaelic: tùr m
• Spanish: torre (es) f

Tarot card

• Catalan: la torre, casa de déu
• Czech: věž (cs) f
• Dutch: toren (nl)
• French: la maison dieu
• German: der Turm
• Hungarian: torony (hu)
• Italian: la torre, il fulmine
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 塔 (ja) (とう, tō)
• Korean: 탑 (ko) (tap)
• Polish: wieża (pl), wieża boga
• Portuguese: torre (pt) f, casa de Deus f, Casa de Deus f
• Scots: tour
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} la casa de dios

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Breton: ^{(please verify)} tour (br) m, ^{(please verify)} tourioù (br) pl
• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} toren (nl) m
• Indonesian: ^{(please verify)} menara (id), ^{(please verify)} tower (id)
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} turre
• Latin: ^{(please verify)} turris (la) f
• Maltese: ^{(please verify)} torri m
• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} turn (ro) n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Slovak: ^{(please verify)} veža (sk) f
• Slovene: ^{(please verify)} stolp (sl) m
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} torn (sv)
• Telugu: ^{(please verify)} స్తూపము (te) (stūpamu)
• Turkish: ^{(please verify)} kule (tr)
• Volapük: ^{(please verify)} tüm (vo)
• Welsh: ^{(please verify)} tŵr (cy)

Etymology 2

From Middle English touren, torren, torrien, from Old English *torrian, from the noun (see above).

Verb

tower (third-person singular simple present towers, present participle towering, simple past and past participle towered)

1. (intransitive) To be very tall.
   • 2013 August 3, “Revenge of the nerds”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers.

   The office block towered into the sky.

2. (intransitive) To be high or lofty; to soar.
   • (Can we date this quote by William Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     My lord protector's hawks do tower so well.

3. (obsolete, transitive) To soar into.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

Derived terms

• tower over

See also

• Template:projectlink
• mast

Etymology 3

From tow +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtəʊ.ə(ɹ)/

Noun

tower (plural towers)

1. One who tows.
   • 1933, Henry Sturmey, ‎H. Walter Staner, The Autocar

     But as the tower and towee reached the cross-roads again, another car, negligently driven, came round the corner, hit the Morris, and severed the tow rope, sending the unfortunate car back again into the shop window […]

Anagrams

• towre, twoer, wrote

---

Afrikaans

Verb

tower (present tower, present participle towerende, past participle getower)

1. Alternative form of toor.