spire
/ˈspaɪ.ɚ/noun, verb
spire is spelled S-P-I-R-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,070th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, spire means “A young shoot of a plant; a spear” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of spire is spires.
How many letters and syllables are in spire?
| Letters | 5: S-P-I-R-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words; the 25,070th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is spire?
Spire appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,070th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce spire?
- UK /spaɪə/
- UK /ˈspaɪ.ə/
- US /ˈspaɪ.ɚ/
Spire has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-spire.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with spire?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as spire from its last stressed vowel (/aɪəɹ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: prise, spier.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of spire
- spires plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- spiring participle, present
- spired participle, past
- 'spires present, singular, he/she/it
- 'spiring participle, present
- 'spired participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does spire mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
archaicThe stalk or stem of a plant.
- 2
A young shoot of a plant; a spear.
- 3
Any of various tall grasses, rushes, or sedges, such as the marram, the reed canary-grass, etc.
- 4
A sharp or tapering point.
- 5
A tapering structure built on a roof or tower, especially as one of the central architectural features of a church or cathedral roof.
The spire of the church rose high above the town.
- 6
The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit.
- 7
A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the charge in blasting.
- 8
One of the sinuous foldings of a serpent or other reptile; a coil.
- 9
A spiral.
- 10
The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole.
verb
- 1
to sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate.
- 2
To grow upwards rather than develop horizontally.
- 3
To furnish with a spire.
- 4
obsoleteTo breathe.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Spire in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | flèche |
| German | Turmspitze, Turmhelm |
| Portuguese | agulha, flecha, coruchéu , topo, ápice, cume |
| Spanish | chapitel, aguja |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does spire come from?
From Middle English spire, spyre, spier, spir, from Old English spīr, from Proto-Germanic *spīrō, *spīrǭ (“peak; point; tip; stalk”). Cognate with Dutch spier, German Low German Spier, German Spier, Spiere, Danish spir, Norwegian spir and spire, Swedish spira, Icelandic spíra.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).