skyscraper

American  

[skahy-skray-per] / ˈskaɪˌskreɪ pər /

noun

• skyscrapers
  plural

1. a relatively tall building of many stories, especially one for office or commercial use.

2. Architecture. a building of exceptional height completely supported by a framework, as of girders, from which the walls are suspended, as opposed to a building supported by load-bearing walls.

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skyscraper British  

/ ˈskaɪˌskreɪpə /

noun

1. a very tall multistorey building

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• skyscrapers
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of skyscraper

First recorded in 1785–95; sky + scraper

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Explanation

A skyscraper is a very tall building, like New York City's Empire State Building, which held the title of "World's Tallest Building" for many years. You're most likely to see a skyscraper in a large city like New York or Hong Kong. You can spot the tourists in these cities because they are often gazing up at the tops of the skyscrapers. The designation of a building as a skyscraper was originally an Americanism, but the earliest recorded use of skyscraper was for a triangular sail set topmost on a square-rigged ship, and at other times in the past the word was used to designate a very tall man and a high-flying bird, among other things.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

skyscraper skyscrapers

The skyscraper on Park Avenue also shows how much Dimon and JPMorgan have evolved over the years.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026

JPMorgan’s JPM 0.52%increase; up pointing triangle new skyscraper in Manhattan is hard to miss.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026

The skyscraper, opened in New York nearly 100 years ago, will see its Art Deco crown polished and restored during a refurbishment that will also involve the restoration of the building's 77-storey façade.

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

Could an L.A. skyscraper rise higher than those in New York City or Chicago?

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

The rim arced through the sky at a height of 264 feet, as high as the topmost occupied floor in Burnham’s Masonic Temple, the city’s tallest skyscraper.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Looking up from the ground floor gives you a true sense of the scale of the behemoth orbiter, boosters and tank, which shoot up like skyscrapers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026

He says he felt like an ant walking into the huge facility on his first day in prison; the guard towers reminded him of skyscrapers.

From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026

It adds that 9/11 has left a "deadly legacy", reporting that thousands of people who breathed in the toxic dust that followed the fall of the two skyscrapers have since died from cancer.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026

The 10-acre site will also be transformed by new offices and retail space, primarily serving the neighbouring financial district filled with skyscrapers.

From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026

I could see almost everything from here—the East River and the Hudson River carving the shape of Manhattan, the grid of streets, the lights of skyscrapers, the dark stretch of Central Park in the north.

From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan

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