minaret

[ min-uh-ret, min-uh-ret ]

noun

1. a lofty, often slender, tower or turret attached to a mosque, surrounded by or furnished with one or more balconies, from which the muezzin calls the people to prayer.

minaret

/ ˌmɪnəˈrɛt; ˈmɪnəˌrɛt /

noun

1. a slender tower of a mosque having one or more balconies from which the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer
2. any structure resembling this

Derived Forms

• ˌminaˈreted, adjective

Other Words From

• mina·reted adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of minaret¹

1675–85; < French minaret, Spanish minarete, or Italian minaretto ≪ Arabic manārah lighthouse, perhaps akin to nār fire

Word History and Origins

Origin of minaret¹

C17: from French, from Turkish, from Arabic manārat lamp, from nār fire

Example Sentences

The minaret of every mosque they passed was toppled, he said.

From Los Angeles Times

It tells the story, at once hopeful and cynical in a magical realist sort of way, of a small town in 1950s Turkey, its collective imagination sparked by a politician’s speech, trying to send a minaret to space with balloons.

From New York Times

Less than a kilometre from the front line, Mukhtar al-Badri Mohieddin is walking with a stick near a mosque with a damaged minaret.

From BBC

Minaret Records, a record label founded in 2019 by Yousef Hilmy, aims to be a beacon of the local Los Angeles jazz community.

From Los Angeles Times

One image seen on X, formerly known as Twitter, shows an Israeli soldier posing in front of a fallen minaret which has been graffitied in Hebrew with the words "the temple will be rebuilt" - a reference to a belief that a third Jewish temple will be built on the contested holy site in Jerusalem known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif or the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

From BBC

Related Words

• cupola
• spire
• turret