steeple
/ˈsti(ː)pəl/
steeple noun: a tall tower, often on a church, normally topped with a spire.
Noun
steeple (plural steeples)
- A tall tower, often on a church, normally topped with a spire.
- Above the session-room of the Council is the steeple, and in the steeple is the belfry, where exists, and has existed time out of mind, the pride and wonder of the village—the great clock of the borough of Vondervotteimittiss.1839, Edgar Allan Poe, The Devil in the Belfry
- So, the woman and the child had gone by, and gone on, and five had sounded from the steeples.1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “Little Dorrit’s Party”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, 1st book (Poverty), pages 126–127
- A spire.
- A high headdress of the 14th century.
Verb
steeple (third-person singular simple present steeples, present participle steepling, simple past and past participle steepled)
- To form something into the shape of a steeple.
- He steepled his fingers as he considered the question.
- Mr. Ziegler is now angled forward with his elbows on his knees and his fingers steepled just under his nose.2005, David Foster Wallace, Consider the Lobster and Other Essays, New York: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 341
Proper noun capitalized: Steeple
Steeple
steeple meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
steeple in Tamil
- கோபுரம்
steeple in Urdu
- برج, کلس, مینار کلیسا
steeple in Bengali
- গির্জার চূড়া
steeple in Telugu
- steeple
- గాలిగోపురము gāligōpuramu
- a steeple
- గోపురము gōpuramu
More languagesFewer languages
- steeple in Malayalam
- ഗോപുരാഗ്രം, കൂർത്ത ഗോപുരം, ലാസിക, പള്ളിഗോപുരം
- steeple in Kannada
- ಗುಡಿಗೋಪುರ, ಚೂಪುಗೋಪುರ, ಚರ್ಚಿನ ಮೊನಚು ತುದಿಯುಳ್ಳ ಗೋಪುರ
Forms of steeple
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | steeples |
| alternative form (obsolete) | steple |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | steeples |
| present participle | steepling |
| past participle | steepled |
| past | steepled |
Origin of steeple
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”).
Words formed from steeple
- steepled
- Ainderby Steeple
- rood-steeple
- Steeple Aston
- Steeple Bumpstead
- steeplebush
- steeple cab
- steeplechase
- steeplechasing
- Steeple Claydon
- steeple engine
- steeple-fingered
- Steeple Flat
- steeple hat
- steeplehouse
- steeplejack
- steeple keeper
- Steeple Langford
- steepleless
- steeplelike
- Steeple Morden
- Steeple Mountain
- Sturton le Steeple
- unsteeple
Phrases with steeple
Words that rhyme with steeple
Questions about steeple
- What does steeple mean?
- Steeple means a tall tower, often on a church, normally topped with a spire.
- What is steeple in Tamil?
- Steeple in Tamil is கோபுரம். See Steeple meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is steeple?
- Steeple can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce steeple?
- Steeple is pronounced /ˈsti(ː)pəl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of steeple?
- The plural of steeple is steeples.
Words near steeple in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: steeple (page history and authors); Steeple (page history and authors); steeple (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); steeple (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); steeple (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); గాలిగోపురము (Telugu) (page history and authors); steeple (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); steeple (Kannada 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-steeple.wav.
Cite this entry: “steeple.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/steeple. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.