overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

belfry.

A tower or steeple typically containing bells, especially as part of a church.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbɛlfɹi/
  1. A tower or steeple typically containing bells, especially as part of a church.

  2. A part of a large tower or steeple, specifically for containing bells.

  3. A shed.

    dialectal
  4. A movable tower used in sieges.

    obsolete
  5. An alarm-tower; a watchtower possibly containing an alarm-bell.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English belfry, bellfray, belfray, berfrey, barfray, from Old French belfroi, berfroi, berfrey, from Late Latin berfrēdus, from Frankish *bergafriþu, from Proto-Germanic *bergafriþuz, equivalent to barrow + frith. English forms containing bel- as opposed to ber- were preferred due to false association with English bell. Cognate with Middle High German bërcvrit, bërvrit (“defensive tower”) (modern German Bergfried), Middle Dutch bergfrede, bergfert. Doublet of bergfried.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

belfry has 6 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

belfry studiobelfry workshello, belfry

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.