Skyscraper

//ˈskaɪˌskɹeɪpɚ// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A very tall building with a large number of floors.

    "As the curve of Sandy Hook blotted from sight the last, low glimpse of the skyscrapers which point Manhattan, Blake touched Annette's arm."

  2. 2
    a very tall building with many stories wordnet
  3. 3
    A small sail atop a mast of a ship; a triangular skysail. archaic
  4. 4
    Anything very tall or high. figuratively

    "It was no surprise to see Hanley bat a skyscraper out to left."

Synonyms

All synonyms
antenna towerarchitecturebarbicanbelfrybell towerbuilding

Example

More examples

"The elevators in a skyscraper are vital systems."

Etymology

Compound of sky + scraper, first applied to tall steel-frame buildings in American cities such as New York City and Chicago in the 1880s.

Related phrases

skyscraper heelbig citieshigh buildingmany storiestall buildingtallest buildingvery tall

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.