Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

minaret

American  
[min-uh-ret, min-uh-ret] / ˌmɪn əˈrɛt, ˈmɪn əˌrɛt /

noun

  1. a lofty, often slender, tower or turret attached to a mosque, surrounded by or furnished with one or more balconies, from which the muezzin calls the people to prayer.

minaret British  
/ ˌmɪnəˈrɛt, ˈmɪnəˌrɛt /

noun

  1. a slender tower of a mosque having one or more balconies from which the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer

  2. any structure resembling this

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • minareted adjective

Etymology

Origin of minaret

1675–85; < French minaret, Spanish minarete, or Italian minaretto ≪ Arabic manārah lighthouse, perhaps akin to nār fire

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.

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

Less than a kilometre from the front line, Mukhtar al-Badri Mohieddin is walking with a stick near a mosque with a damaged minaret.

From BBC • Mar. 19, 2024

In one recording, a song about banishing darkness, associated with the current Jewish festival of Hanukkah, is heard sung in Hebrew through a loudspeaker in a minaret.

From BBC • Dec. 14, 2023

The minaret of a mosque was tilting to one side.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 4, 2023

We were astonished, for the minaret was so high.

From "Tasting the Sky" by Ibtisam Barakat

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.