Martello tower
Martello tower noun: a short sturdy round masonry fort, especially one constructed at various coastal points in the British Empire during the Napoleonic Wars.
Noun
Martello tower (plural Martello towers)
- A short sturdy round masonry fort, especially one constructed at various coastal points in the British Empire during the Napoleonic Wars.
- The martello towers was put up for the Guernsey people to get in out of the way of the Grand Saracen.1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 309
- Synonyms:
- Martello
Synonyms of Martello tower
Forms of Martello tower
| plural | Martello towers |
|---|
Origin of Martello tower
From a corruption of Corsican Torra di Mortella (literally “Tower of Mortella”), a tower in Corsica which was used as the basis for the design; possibly influenced by Italian martello (“hammer”).
Questions about Martello tower
- What does Martello tower mean?
- Martello tower means a short sturdy round masonry fort, especially one constructed at various coastal points in the British Empire during the Napoleonic Wars.
- What part of speech is Martello tower?
- Martello tower is a noun.
- What is the plural of Martello tower?
- The plural of Martello tower is Martello towers.
Words near Martello tower in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Martello tower (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:
Cite this entry: “Martello tower.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/martello_tower. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.