Word.ws English Dictionary

ivory tower

UK/ˈaɪvəɹi ˈtaʊə//ˈaɪvəɹi ˈtaʊɚ/

ivory tower noun: a sheltered, overly-academic existence or perspective, implying a disconnection or lack of awareness of reality or practical considerations.

Noun

ivory tower (plural ivory towers)

  1. (idiomatic) A sheltered, overly-academic existence or perspective, implying a disconnection or lack of awareness of reality or practical considerations.
    • Such a proposal looks fine from an ivory tower, but it could never work in real life.
    • Hamilton College is an ivory tower with an open bar, and so I - who work and play equally hard - have come to love this place, and have been dead-set against leaving it.2005, Daniel Walker, Valedictory speech for Hamilton College

Adjective

ivory tower (comparative more ivory tower, superlative most ivory tower)

  1. Separated from reality and practical matters; overly academic.
    • The majority of librarians appear to have shown a very ivory tower approach to the application of all types of management technique to librarianship.1968, New Library World, volumes 69-70, page 8
    • I must say that, with all due respect, I think that's a very ivory tower approach.1995, Hearings relating to Madison Guaranty S&L and the Whitewater Development Corporation, Washington, DC phase, page 504

ivory tower meaning in Urdu, Malay, Indonesian and Thai

ivory tower in Urdu

گوشہ عذلت, خلوت گاہ, روحانی خانقاہ

ivory tower in Malay

overly-academic perspective
menara gading

ivory tower in Indonesian

overly-academic perspective
menara gading

ivory tower in Thai

overly-academic perspective
หอคอยงาช้าง hɔ̌ɔ-kɔɔi-ngaa-cháang
More languagesFewer languages
ivory tower in Vietnamese
tháp ngà

Forms of ivory tower

Noun
pluralivory towers
Adjective
comparativemore ivory tower
superlativemost ivory tower

Origin of ivory tower

Calque of French tour d'ivoire, based on a biblical phrase, coined by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve to compare the poet Alfred de Vigny (more isolated) with Victor Hugo (more socially engaged). First attested in English in a translation of Laughter by French philosopher Henri Bergson (1911). The term was popularized in The Ivory Tower (1917) by Henry James, though used in different sense (millionaires, not professors).

Words formed from ivory tower

Questions about ivory tower

What does ivory tower mean?
Ivory tower means a sheltered, overly-academic existence or perspective, implying a disconnection or lack of awareness of reality or practical considerations.
What is ivory tower in Urdu?
Ivory tower in Urdu is گوشہ عذلت, خلوت گاہ, روحانی خانقاہ. See Ivory tower meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is ivory tower?
Ivory tower can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce ivory tower?
Ivory tower is pronounced /ˈaɪvəɹi ˈtaʊə/ (UK).
What is the plural of ivory tower?
The plural of ivory tower is ivory towers.

Words near ivory tower in the dictionary

  1. ivory palm
  2. ivory palms
  3. ivory porcelain
  4. ivory porcelains
  5. ivory tickler
  6. ivory tower
  7. ivory towers
  8. ivory tree
  9. ivory trees
  10. ivory-bill
  11. ivory-billed woodpecker

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ivory tower (page history and authors); ivory tower (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-ivory tower.ogg, en-au-ivory tower.ogg.

Cite this entry: “ivory tower.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ivory_tower. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.