turriphilia

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noun

An (often manic) affection for, love of, or attraction (in any form) towards towers or similarly shaped or designed objects.

OriginLatin turris ← Ancient Greek τύρρις →
Scrabble 16
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Meanings

nounturriphilia (uncountable)
  1. uncountableAn (often manic) affection for, love of, or attraction (in any form) towards towers or similarly shaped or designed objects.

    Theodore Ziolkowski has extensively explored the conservative cultural response to modernity and the Great War, and in this new study he takes it down an arresting byway: turriphilia, or the mania for towers.

    1998, Jeffers Studies, volume 2, Long Beach, CA: California State University, page 7
    1 more example

    Whether these writers share any characteristics that might account for their common turriphilia, and whether by moving into towers they reified an image already prevalent in their works or, alternatively, by writing about towers internalized the reality of their lives—these are some of the questions to be addressed in the following pages.

    1998, Theodore Ziolkowski, View from the Tower: Origins of an Antimodernist Image, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 6
  2. uncountableThe urge or desire to build towers.

    The Guggenheim functions as an American expression of modern turriphilia that serves as both refuge from, and critique of, modern urban space […].

    2002, “Abstracts”, in American Academy of Religion (AAR), Toronto, Canada: Scholars Press, page 4
    1 more example

    [Horace Walpole's] contributions to culture are many: he wrote a gothic novel called "The Castle of Otranto", he authored an important text on garden design, he coined the term serendipity […], and he was a true icon of turriphilia.

    2004, Wilfried Hou Je Bek, “Do-It-Yourself Urbanism: Psychogeography, Generosity, Serendipity and Turriphilia”, in Bart Lootsma, Marie-Ange Brayer, Christelle Lecoeur, Cathy Larque, editors, Archilab 2004 Orléans: The Naked City/La Ville à nu, Orléans: Éditions Hyx, →ISBN

Origin

  1. Ancient Greekφιλία“love, affection”
  2. Ancient Greekτύρρις
  3. Latinturris“tower”
  4. Englishturriphilia

Coined by Theodore Ziolkowski in 1998. From Latin turris (“tower”), from Ancient Greek τύρρις (túrrhis) + -philia, from Ancient Greek φιλία (philía, “love, affection”).

More words from Latin, Ancient Greek

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

turriphilia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/turriphilia

MLA

“turriphilia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/turriphilia. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “turriphilia,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/turriphilia.

Source: turriphilia on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.