- present participle of tower.
towering
Americanadjective
-
very high or tall; lofty.
a towering oak.
- Synonyms:
- elevated
- Antonyms:
- short
-
surpassing others; very great.
a towering figure in American poetry.
-
rising to an extreme degree of violence or intensity.
a towering rage.
-
beyond the proper or usual limits; inordinate; excessive.
towering pride; towering ambitions.
adjective
-
very tall; lofty
-
outstanding, as in importance or stature
-
(prenominal) very intense
a towering rage
Synonym Usage
See high.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of towering
From a late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; see origin at tower 1, -ing 2
Explanation
Towering things are extremely tall, like the towering skyscrapers in New York City or the towering redwoods in northern California. Use the adjective towering to describe gigantic things that loom over everything (or everyone) else. There's the towering basketball player in your yoga class who is at least a foot taller than the other students, and the towering addition your neighbor is building on his house — the one that will block your view of the lake. The verb tower means "to rise high," from the Latin for "tower," turris.
Vocabulary lists containing towering
Living Large: Synonyms for "Big"
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Unit 4: Powerful Openings
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"The Lotus Seed"
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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.
Many were taking selfies with a three-metre-tall Unitree GD01, a towering rideable robot the firm says can switch between bi- and quadruped settings.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
Hundreds of metres of berths sat empty and towering gantry cranes stood idle as a skeleton crew conducted maintenance.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
The 'trees that hit the moon' are more than towering natural monuments.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026
Hiking through Sabino Canyon beneath towering saguaro cactuses, the empty trails felt vast and lonely.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
It’s three stories of towering stone, peaked roofs, and ginormous windows.
From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein
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.
