spire

/spaɪə/

//spaɪə// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"spire" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“spire” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #25,217. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#25,217
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The stalk or stem of a plant.

Corpus desk

Index EN-spire · spire · English

spire · rank #25,217 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #25,217
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH spectacles

Nearest frequency peer: spectacles (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “spire”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “spire” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

spire vs SPR
0% similar
spire vs sure
60% similar
spire vs stir
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for spire
PropertyValue
Headwordspire
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/spaɪə/
Letters5
Frequency rank#25,217
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “spire”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).spirelands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “spectacles” (#25,216), “spout” (#25,218), “sparring” (#25,215). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “spire” is #25,217. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around spire (IPA /spaɪə/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #25,217 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for spire, with forms such as "psire", "sipre", and "spier". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "SPR", "sure", "stir", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: 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 spi… The correct English form is spire, spelled S-P-I-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    The stalk or stem of a plant.
  2. 2
    A young shoot of a plant; a spear.
  3. 3
    Any of various tall grasses, rushes, or sedges, such as the marram, the reed canary-grass, etc.
  4. 4
    A sharp or tapering point.
  5. 5
    A tapering structure built on a roof or tower, especially as one of the central architectural features of a church or cathedral roof.
  6. 6
    The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit.
  7. 7
    A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the charge in blasting.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how spire appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Clara had pulled a button from a hollyhock spire, and was breaking it to get the seeds.
  2. A beech wood with silver firs in it rolled down the face of the hill, and the maze of leafless twigs and dusky spires cut sharp against the soft blueness of the evening sky.

Etymology

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.

This word in other languages

chapitel(Español)flèche(Français)Turmspitze(Deutsch)agulha(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • psire
  • sipre
  • spier
  • spirre
  • sppire
  • sprie
  • sspire

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of spire - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

psire2sipre2spier2spirre1sppire1sprie2sspire1
Edit distance from "spire"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "spire"?
"spire" is spelled S-P-I-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is /spaɪə/.
What does "spire" mean?
As a noun, "spire" means: The stalk or stem of a plant.
What words are commonly confused with "spire"?
"spire" is commonly confused with "SPR", "sure", "stir". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "spire"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "spire" is /spaɪə/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "spire"?
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, S... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "spire", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

spout#25,218sully#25,227rower#25,193Rocco#25,189

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

tellin7 variantstopper7 variantssalaam7 variantsrevel7 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list