The tall pointed tower on top of a church. Picture a village church in England: the square stone tower, and then the long thin spike going up into the sky. The whole thing — tower plus spike — is the steeple. People often use 'steeple' and 'spire' as if they were the same word, and in ordinary talk nobody will correct you, but strictly the spire is only the pointed part at the top, and the steeple is the tower with the spire on it. The steeple usually holds the bells. Because a steeple is the tallest thing in an old town, the word carries a feeling of being able to see it from far away — 'you can see the steeple from the next village'. It is almost always a church word; you would not call the pointed roof of a house a steeple. There is also a rarer verb, to steeple your fingers — to press your fingertips together so your hands make a shape like a pointed roof. Business people do this in meetings when they want to look thoughtful.