tor

[tawr]

See more synonyms for tor on Thesaurus.com

noun

a rocky pinnacle; a peak of a bare or rocky mountain or hill.

Origin of tor

before 900; Middle English; Old English torr < Celtic; compare Irish tor rocky height, Welsh twr heap, pile

-tor

a suffix found in loanwords from Latin, forming personal agent nouns from verbs and, less commonly, from nouns: dictator; genitor; janitor; orator; victor.

Origin of -tor

< Latin -tor (stem -tōr-), cognate with Greek -tōr (stem -tor-), Sanskrit -tar-

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for tor

ridge, elevation, pile, peak, bluff, cliff, sierra, volcano, eminence, height, slope, dune, hillside, hilltop, highland, pyramid, alp, hump, precipice, glob

Examples from the Web for tor

Contemporary Examples of tor

Relays are special computers that Tor uses to anonymously transmit traffic across the Internet.
The Attack on the Hidden Internet
Marc Rogers
December 29, 2014
Luckily, Tor was prepared for this sort of assault, and has built-in defenses to protect against it.
The Attack on the Hidden Internet
Marc Rogers
December 29, 2014
Tor, on the other hand, has been an Internet staple for years.
The Attack on the Hidden Internet
Marc Rogers
December 29, 2014
Onion routers refers to the TOR network, a system that allows users to mask their location and communicate anonymously online.
ISIS Keeps Getting Better at Dodging U.S. Spies
Shane Harris, Noah Shachtman
November 14, 2014
On the streets of Tor Sapienza, however, the battle rages on.
In Rome’s Riots, Cries for Mussolini and Attacks on Refugees
Barbie Latza Nadeau
November 14, 2014

Historical Examples of tor

“You can go in here until I have done with Tor di Rocca,” he said.
Olive in Italy
Moray Dalton
Nĕs' tor—the leader of the warriors of Pylos, in southwestern Greece.
Odysseus, the Hero of Ithaca
Homer
I wished to go in that direction and to search the tor, but it was some distance away.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
A. Conan Doyle
Sir Tor asks the dwarf who is his guide, Know ye any lodging?
Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages
Edward Lewes Cutts
They came from the races of Tor di Quinto, which had taken place that day.
Cosmopolis, Complete
Paul Bourget

British Dictionary definitions for tor

tor

noun

a high hill, esp a bare rocky one
mainly Southwest English a prominent rock or heap of rocks, esp on a hill

Word Origin for tor

Old English torr, probably of Celtic origin; compare Scottish Gaelic torr pile, Welsh twr

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

Word Origin and History for tor

"high, rocky hill," Old English torr "tower, rock." Obviously cognate with Gaelic torr "lofty hill, mound," Old Welsh twrr "heap, pile;" and probably ultimately from Latin turris "high structure" see tower (n.)). But sources disagree on whether the Celts borrowed it from the Anglo-Saxons or the other way round.