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steeple.

A tall tower, often on a church, normally topped with a spire.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈsti(ː)pəl/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈsti(ː)pɫ̩]Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. A tall tower, often on a church, normally topped with a spire.

  2. A spire.

  3. A high headdress of the 14th century.

    historical
Where this word comes from

From Middle English stepel, from Old English stīpel, stȳpel, stīepel (“tower, steeple”), from Proto-West Germanic *staupil, from Proto-Germanic *staupilaz (“that which is steep, tower, steeple”), equivalent to steep + -le. Cognate with Old Norse stǫpull (“tower, steeple”).

verb/ˈsti(ː)pəl/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈsti(ː)pɫ̩]Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. To form something into the shape of a steeple.

    transitive
    He steepled his fingers as he considered the question.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English stepel, from Old English stīpel, stȳpel, stīepel (“tower, steeple”), from Proto-West Germanic *staupil, from Proto-Germanic *staupilaz (“that which is steep, tower, steeple”), equivalent to steep + -le. Cognate with Old Norse stǫpull (“tower, steeple”).

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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.