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Tower vs Column - What's the difference?

tower | column |

As nouns the difference between tower and column

is that tower is a structure, usually taller than it is wide, often used as a lookout, usually unsupported by guy-wires while column is a solid upright structure designed usually to support a larger structure above it, such as a roof or horizontal beam, but sometimes for decoration.

As a verb tower

is to be very tall.

tower

English

(wikipedia tower)

Alternative forms

* (obsolete)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) torr, from (etyl) turris. Probably influenced by Welsh .

Noun

(en noun)
  • A structure, usually taller than it is wide, often used as a lookout, usually unsupported by guy-wires.
    • From the top of the tower we could see far off into the distance.
  • (figuratively) Any item, such as a computer case, that is usually higher than it is wide.
  • (informal) An interlocking tower.
  • (figurative) A strong refuge; a defence.
  • * Bible, Psalms lxi. 3
    • Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.
  • (historical) A tall fashionable headdress.
  • * Hudibras
    • Lay trains of amorous intrigues / In towers , and curls, and periwigs.
  • (obsolete) High flight; elevation.
    • (Johnson)
  • The sixteenth trump or Major Arcana card in many decks, deemed an ill omen.
    • Synonyms
    * donjon
    Derived terms
    * control tower * guardtower * interlocking tower * radio tower * siege tower * tower of Babel * towers of Hanoi * tower of strength * watchtower * water tower

    See also

    * * mast

    Verb

  • To be very tall.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Revenge of the nerds , passage=Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.}}
  • To be high or lofty; to soar.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • My lord protector's hawks do tower so well.
  • (obsolete) To soar into.
    • (Milton)

    Derived terms

    * tower over

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who tows.
  • * 1933 , Henry Sturmey, ?H. Walter Staner, The Autocar
    • But as the tower and towee reached the cross-roads again, another car, negligently driven, came round the corner, hit the Morris, and severed the tow rope, sending the unfortunate car back again into the shop window

    Anagrams

    *

    column

    English

    (wikipedia column)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (architecture) A solid upright structure designed usually to support a larger structure above it, such as a roof or horizontal beam, but sometimes for decoration.
  • A vertical line of entries in a table, usually read from top to bottom.
  • A body of troops or army vehicles, usually strung out along a road.
  • A body of text meant to be read line by line, especially in printed material that has multiple adjacent such on a single page.
  • A unit of width, especially of advertisements, in a periodical, equivalent to the width of a usual column of text.
  • (label) A recurring feature in a periodical, especially an opinion piece, especially by a single author or small rotating group of authors, or on a single theme.
  • Something having similar vertical form or structure to the things mentioned above, such as a spinal column.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1892, author=(James Yoxall)
    • , chapter=5, title= The Lonely Pyramid , passage=The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.}}
  • (botany) The gynostemium

    • Synonyms

    * (upright structure) post, pillar, sile

    Antonyms

    * (line of table entries) row (which is horizontal)

    Hypernyms

    * (upright structure) beam

    External links

    * *