Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A tall slender tower attached to a mosque, having one or more projecting balconies from which a muezzin summons the people to prayer.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In Moslem arch., a slender and lofty turret typically rising by several stages or stories, and surrounded by one or more projecting balconies, characteristic of Mohammedan mosques, and corresponding to the belfry of a Christian church. From the balconies of the minarets the people are summoned to prayer five times a day by criers. See
muezzin , and cut undermosque .
Wiktionary
- n. the tall slender tower of an Islamic mosque, from which the muezzin recites the adhan (call to prayer)
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A slender, lofty tower attached to a mosque and surrounded by one or more projecting balconies, from which the summon to prayer is cried by the muezzin.
WordNet 3.0
- n. slender tower with balconies
Etymologies
- French, from Turkish minārat, from Arabic manāra, lamp; see nwr in Semitic roots.
Examples
“It is said that the word minaret comes from the Arabic term Al - manar, which means lighthouse and minaret.”
“Scott, you clearly were unaware that the minaret is the new axis of evil.”
“Mosul's degenerating old quarter, with its beetling Ottoman walls and elegantly stuccoed twelfth-century Seljuk minaret, is testimony to this cosmopolitan lineage.”
“While there are only four minarets in Switzerland, a country that is home to approximately 400,000 Muslims, supporters of the referendum mindlessly charge that the minaret is a political symbol of militant Islam.”
“The minaret is a sign of political power and demand, comparable with whole-body covering by the burqa, tolerance of forced marriage and genital mutilation of girls," the sponsors said.”
Wael Nawara: After The Swiss Ban On Building Minarets, 3D Islam: A Religion Or A Political Ideology?
“They told voters that "the minaret is a sign of political power and demand, comparable with whole-body covering by the burqa, tolerance of forced marriage and genital mutilation of girls.”
Ahmed Rehab: Swiss Radicalization: A Sign of Things to Come?
“The mosque, where father goes to pray, has a big tall tower next to it, called a minaret.”
“Forward (?) the hull flared and then came to a point, making Patulcius and Svoboda recall a minaret or a church spire.”
The Boat of a Million Years
“There is also wanting in the town the feature which makes most Moslem towns picturesque, namely the minaret; the mosques of the Ibadhuyah sect being squalid and uninteresting.”
“A grandiose view it is, recalling the minaret of Mansourah near Tclemcen in Algeria, that gigantic monolith apparently carved out of Indian gold and cleft in two like a pomegranate.”
East of Paris Sketches in the Gâtinais, Bourbonnais, and Champagne
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘minaret’.
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Architectual terms
Any words to do with architecture or building materials, to help me write a fictional city for a novel.
welkin, cornice, gargoyle, quatrefoil, frieze, bargeboard, corbel, cupola, belvedere, steeple, widow's walk, minaret and 13 more...
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josholalia's list
ineluctable, glossolalia, agog, echolalia, minaret, pillory, usury, gimlet, carioca, sniveling, concave, convex and 15 more...
chained_bear Because it's a really cool word? Just a guess! Nov 29, 2007
singlepayernow why did i add this word on my list? Nov 29, 2007