minaret
Americannoun
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minarets
plural
noun
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a slender tower of a mosque having one or more balconies from which the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer
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any structure resembling this
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of minaret
1675–85; < French minaret, Spanish minarete, or Italian minaretto ≪ Arabic manārah lighthouse, perhaps akin to nār fire
Explanation
A minaret is a tall, slim tower on a mosque. Traditionally, a minaret is used to call Muslims to prayer five times each day. Originally built as ventilation systems in hot climates, modern minarets are usually outfitted with speakers, so the call to prayer can be broadcast from the tower. Minarets are also visual cues to Muslims, marking a mosque's location much like the spire on a church does. Minaret is a French word that comes from the Arabic manarah or manarat, meaning "lamp, lighthouse, or minaret."
Vocabulary lists containing minaret
Built To Last: Architectural Parlance
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English Words Derived from Arabic
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National Spelling Bee '14: Prelims Round 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He saw great beauty in the natural world, often sharing photos with friends of hawks soaring over the mosque’s minaret.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026
With its palm trees standing alongside the minaret and its nondescript suburban homes lining the street, this suburb presents the image of a peaceful, multicultural America.
From Barron's ● May 19, 2026
To reach Ghorjomi mosque, one of the biggest, we drove up hairpin mountain lanes, edged with blue hydrangeas, until we spotted the minaret.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025
The minaret was her husband's idea, and he sketched the initial design.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2025
I imagined the donkey my father mentioned standing there under the minaret the way Souma had stood in the shelter after the war.
From "Tasting the Sky" by Ibtisam Barakat
"I could talk to you for three hours about the family lineages, the mosques' minarets and why the mud-brick walls never collapse in the rain," he told AFP.
From Barron's ● Jan. 29, 2026
But, in Londonderry, there are no mosques or minarets.
From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2024
Two 700-year-old minarets on the list that are in the path of the roadwork are being dismantled and moved to another location.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 10, 2023
Two mosque minarets fell, along with many traditional houses.
From Reuters ● Sep. 9, 2023
I imagine the beautiful gold-domed mosque and minarets that stand beside the community building.
From "Amina's Voice" by Hena Khan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
