• (RP) enPR spīr, IPA: /spaɪə/, /ˈspaɪə/
• (GA) enPR spīr, IPA: /spaɪɹ/, /ˈspaɪɚ/

spire (plural spires)

1. (now rare) The stalk or stem of a plant. [from 10th c.]
2. A young shoot of a plant; a spear. [from 14th c.]
   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 12

     Clara had pulled a button from a hollyhock spire, and was breaking it to get the seeds.

3. Any of various tall grasses, rushes, or sedges, such as the marram, the reed canary-grass, etc.
4. A sharp or tapering point. [from 16th c.]
5. A tapering structure built on a roof or tower, especially as one of the central architectural features of a church or cathedral roof. [from 16th c.]

   The spire of the church rose high above the town.

6. The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit. [from 17th c.]
   • c. 1608–1609, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene ix]:

     the spire and top of praises

7. (mining) A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the charge in blasting.

• French: flèche
• German: Turmspitze, Turmhelm
• Italian: guglia, pinnacolo, cuspide
• Portuguese: agulha, flecha, coruchéu
• Russian: шпиль
• Spanish: chapitel, aguja

• Italian: punta
• Portuguese: topo, ápice, cume, cúpula
• Russian: верху́шка

spire (spires, present participle spiring; past and past participle spired)

1. (of a seed, plant etc.) to sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate. [from 14th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.5:

     In gentle Ladies breste and bounteous race / Of woman kind it fayrest Flowre doth spyre, / And beareth fruit of honour and all chast desyre.

   • It is not so apt to spire up as the other sorts, being more inclined to branch into arms.

2. To grow upwards rather than develop horizontally. [from 14th c.]
3. (transitive) To furnish with a spire.

spire (spires, present participle spiring; past and past participle spired)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To breathe. [14th-16th c.]

spire (plural spires)

1. One of the sinuous foldings of a serpent or other reptile; a coil. [from 16th c.]
2. A spiral. [from 17th c.]
3. (geometry) The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole.