Other forms: towers, towering, towered
A tower is a very tall narrow building, or the tall part of a castle. A church tower, the Tower of London, a tower block.
Height relative to width is what makes it a tower rather than a building. In castles a tower gave a view and a strong point; in churches it held the bells. A tower block is a tall block of flats, which is the British term. Note tower of strength, meaning a reliable person; and towering, meaning very tall or very great.
1nountowerA very tall narrow building.
“We climbed the tower and looked out over the whole city.”
2verbhighTo rise high above something.
“The new skyscraper towers over the old houses around it.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
tower is a tall structure.
Latin turris, a tower, came into Old English before the conquest and again through Old French. Tor, the rocky hill, is the same word in its older English form.
Ancient Greek
τύρρις
Latin
turris — a tower
Old French
tour
Old English
tūr
Middle English
tour
English, today
tower
From Middle English tour, tur, tor, from Old English tūr, tor, torr "tower; rock"; > English tor and Old French tour, toer, tor; both from Latin turris (“a tower”), Ancient Greek τύρρις Hesychius, τύρσις. Displaced native Middle English stepel for the general sense of "tower". Compare Scots tour, towr, towre (“tower”), West Frisian toer (“tower”), Dutch toren (“tower”), German Turm (“tower”), Danish tårn (“tower”), Swedish torn (“tower”), Icelandic turn (“tower”), Welsh tŵr. a doublet of tor and tourelle and turret.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA