Migdâl (מִגְדָּלָה, Strong's #4026), “tower; small fortress; watchtower; podium.” Cognates of this word appear in Ugaritic, Aramaic, Syriac, and Akkadian. The word occurs about 50 times in biblical Hebrew.
Migdâl means “tower.” This is its use in Gen. 11:4 (the first occurrence of the word): “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven.…”
The word often refers to a “small fortress”: “And he went up thence to Penuel, and spake unto them likewise: and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered him. And he spake also unto the men of Penuel, saying, When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower” (Judg. 8:8-9).
Migdâl sometimes means “watchtower,” one of the specially fortified towers safeguarding the gates of a city and spaced along city walls: “Moreover Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at he corner gate, and at the valley gate, and at the [corner buttress], and fortified them” (2 Chron. 26:9). In Neh. 8:4 the word is used of a wooden “podium”: “And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose.…”