towers

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of tower.

   Floodlights illuminated the cathedral's twin towers at night.

   Engineers inspected the cooling towers before the plant reopened.

   Note

   A regular plural that gathers every kind of tower: radio masts, fire lookouts, water and control towers, skyscrapers, even tall computer cases. The same spelling is also the verb meaning "rises high", so let the neighboring words decide. After a determiner or modifier (the towers, twin towers) it is a noun. After a singular subject (the cliff towers) it is a verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of tower.

   The cliff towers over the small fishing village below.

   His reputation towers above that of his contemporaries.

   Note

   Here the verb is almost always intransitive, so it needs a preposition to name what lies beneath: something towers over or above something else. The same construction works for literal height, like a cliff, and for figurative eminence, like a reputation. An older transitive use, meaning "to soar into" and taking a direct object, is now obsolete. Writers today should keep the preposition.

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