Tower of Babel

See also: tower of Babel

English

Pronunciation

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Proper noun

The Tower of Babel (1563), painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder

the Tower of Babel

1. (biblical) A tower erected at Babel by the descendants of Noah's son Ham to reach the sky, and whose completion God thwarted by making the workers speak different languages so that they were unable to understand one another.

Derived terms

• tower of Babel

Translations

tower erected at Babel

• Albanian: Kulla e Babelit f
• Amharic: የባቢሎን ግንብ (yäbabilon gənb)
• Arabic: بُرْج بَابِل (burj bābil)
• Armenian: Բաբելոնյան աշտարակ (Babelonyan aštarak)
• Asturian: Torre de Babel f
• Basque: Babelgo dorrea inan
• Bulgarian: Вавило́нска ку́ла f (Vavilónska kúla)
• Catalan: Torre de Babel f
• Chinese:

  Eastern Min: 巴別塔 / 巴别塔 (Bă-biĕk-ták)

  Mandarin: 巴別塔 / 巴别塔 (zh) (bābiétǎ)

• Crimean Tatar: Babil qullesi
• Danish: Babelstårnet
• Dutch: toren van Babel m
• Esperanto: Babela turo
• Finnish: Baabelin torni
• French: tour de Babel (fr) f
• Galician: Torre de Babel f
• Georgian: ბაბილონის გოდოლი (babilonis godoli)
• German: Turmbau zu Babel m
• Greek: Πύργος της Βαβέλ m (Pýrgos tis Vavél)
• Hebrew: מִגְדַּל בָּבֶל m (migdál bavél)
• Irish: Túr Bháibil m
• Italian: Torre di Babele f
• Japanese: バベルの塔 (ja) (Baberu no tō)
• Korean: 바벨탑 (ko) (Babel-tap), 바벨의 탑 (Baber-ui tap)
• Latin: Turris Babel
• Latvian: Bābeles tornis m
• Lithuanian: Babelio bokštas (lt) m
• Occitan: Torre de Babel f
• Persian: برج بابل (fa) (borj-e bâbel)
• Polish: wieża Babel (pl) f
• Portuguese: Torre de Babel f
• Romanian: Turnul Babel n
• Russian: Вавило́нская ба́шня (ru) f (Vavilónskaja bášnja)
• Sicilian: Turri di Babbeli f
• Slovak: babylonská veža f
• Spanish: Torre de Babel f
• Sranan Tongo: Toren fu Babel
• Swedish: Babels torn
• Tagalog: Tore ng Babel
• Thai: หอคอยบาเบล (hɔ̌ɔ-kɔɔi baa-been)
• Turkish: Babil Kulesi
• Ukrainian: Вавило́нська ве́жа f (Vavylónsʹka véža)
• Urdu: بابل کا برج (bābil kā burj)

Noun

Tower of Babel (plural Towers of Babel)

1. (figuratively) A visionary and impractical plan.
2. Alternative letter-case form of tower of Babel.