steeple
Americannoun
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an ornamental construction, usually ending in a spire, erected on a roof or tower of a church, public building, etc.
-
a tower terminating in such a construction.
-
(loosely) a spire.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a tall ornamental tower that forms the superstructure of a church, temple, etc
-
such a tower with the spire above it
-
any spire or pointed structure
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of steeple
before 1000; Middle English stepel steeple, tower, Old English stēpel tower. See steep 1, -le
Explanation
A steeple is a very tall tower that gets smaller and smaller as it goes up. Many churches have steeples. Steeples are really tall so people can find the church from anywhere in town. Steeples have been around since the Middle Ages. The word itself comes from Middle English for “high tower.” A steeple on top of a church or temple makes it stand out in a crowd, and it also points right up to heaven. There’s a steeple on almost every church, but if you want to see a really big one, check out the one on the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Vocabulary lists containing steeple
"The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe
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My Brother Sam is Dead
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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:
The simple contour of a chapel, its steeple slightly off-center, stands out from the wall about six inches deep.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2025
A motorized unit arriving to plant a flag on a church steeple and take a photo—then bolting immediately.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 20, 2025
We park with a view of the village church steeple backed by steely limestone peaks of the Pyrenees and lunch at a bar some feet away.
From Salon ● Nov. 8, 2025
Elise Thorner was fourth in the women's 3,000m steeple chase in 9:21.74, while Alastair Chalmers placed fifth in the men's 400m hurdles in 49.92 seconds.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2025
The light on the steeple began to pink.
From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt
The cultivated landscape extends into the distance, where tiny steeples and other buildings offer signs of city life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
New Hampshire’s postcard image is of rural towns built around churches with picturesque white steeples.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 16, 2024
But Bill 21, signed into law last week, is ruffling feathers because its provisions also could keep flagpoles, church steeples, swimming pools and even luaus in the dark.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 3, 2022
Her first, Winston Churchill, had spoken of the "dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone" rising again after World War One to bedevil British politics.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2022
When I look over strips of green grass lining the river, at church steeples and into the cream-and-copper halls of apartment buildings, I’m strong.
From "Jazz" by Toni Morrison
That, at least, felt like home for the hundreds of thousands of Protestant middle Americans who migrated to L.A. and, in the land of Spanish missions, built themselves white clapboard New England-style steepled churches.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 23, 2023
About 100 people, mostly White, gathered on the grassy lawn of the Grayson County courthouse, the nondescript beige block that in 1936 replaced the steepled stone beauty that had burned.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 3, 2021
Greene County is carpeted with hundreds of evangelical churches that range from steepled 19th-century edifices to back-roads barns.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 30, 2021
Perhaps it is just a single stand of trees, straight-trunked with steepled boughs, prickly needles and oblong cones, seen but unnoticed, hidden in plain sight.
From Salon ● Feb. 14, 2021
On the other spread the city of Venice—red-tiled roofs, metal church domes, steepled towers, and sun-bleached buildings in all the colors of Valentine candy hearts—red, white, ochre, pink, and orange.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
Wood removed tailender Naseem Shah with another fierce bouncer, while Adil Rashid took an excellent steepling catch to dismiss the dangerous Fakhar Zaman.
From BBC ● May 30, 2024
Like the rest of the world, the Philippines is having to pay a lot more for energy imports, but it is the steepling prices of staple foodstuffs that has become most hard to stomach.
From Reuters ● Feb. 15, 2023
Guardiola sat on an icebox in the technical area, his fingers steepling against his forehead, in horrified awe, as if trying to impose some reason on it all.
From New York Times ● Apr. 26, 2022
De Beer’s trusty right boot also set up one of South Africa’s two tries as a steepling up-and-under bounced kindly into the grasp of winger Pieter Roussow, who flopped over the line.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 1, 2019
Jenny’s chair let out a plaintive squeak as she leaned back, steepling her fingers in front of her, serious now.
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
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.
