twin towers

noun

twin skyscrapers 110 stories high in New York City; built 1368 feet tall in 1970 to 1973; destroyed by a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001

• Syn: ↑World Trade Center, ↑WTC

• Topics: ↑terrorism, ↑act of terrorism, ↑terrorist act

• Instance Hypernyms: ↑skyscraper

• Part Holonyms: ↑New York, ↑New York City, ↑Greater New York

* * *

the World Trade Center [the World Trade Center] (also the Twin Towers)

two very tall office buildings in ↑Manhattan, New York City, built by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 1972–3. For a short time they were the tallest buildings in the world. Each was 1 350 feet/412 metres high and had 110 floors. A ↑terrorist bomb exploded in the Center in 1993 killing six people and injuring more than a thousand. On September 11th 2001 the Twin Towers were both destroyed in another terrorist attack. Two planes crashed into the towers, and a short time later both towers collapsed. The area where the building used to be is now called Ground Zero.

See also ↑September 11