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Architecture terms glossary page 3
Architecture terms explained in plain English. 407 words and meanings, most familiar first.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| aulic adjective | Of, pertaining to, or resembling a palace. |
| baluster noun | A short column used in a group to support a rail, as commonly found on the side of a stairway; a banister. 1 |
| banderole noun | A flat band with an inscription, common in Renaissance buildings. |
| bartisan noun | A parapet with battlements projecting from the top of a tower in a castle or church. |
| biforate adjective | Having two doors or windows |
| bioclimatic adjective | Focused on providing a comfortable microclimate. |
| bracketing noun | A series or group of brackets; brackets, collectively. |
| cabling noun | The decoration of a fluted shaft of a column or of a pilaster with reeds, or rounded mouldings, which seem to be laid in the hollows of the fluting. |
| cantoned adjective | Having the angles marked by, or decorated with, projecting mouldings or small columns. |
| casemate noun | A hollow molding, chiefly in cornices. |
| cavetto noun | A concave moulding with a regular curved profile that is part of a circle. |
| cella noun | The central, enclosed part of an ancient temple, as distinguished from the open porticos. |
| chapiter noun | The capital or uppermost part of a column, upon which the roof and its decorations are supported. |
| ciborium noun | A fixed vaulted canopy over a Christian altar, supported on four columns. |
| clerestory noun | The upper part of a wall containing windows to let in natural light to a building, especially in the nave, transept and choir of a church or cathedral. |
| coffered adjective | Having coffers. |
| colonnaded adjective | Having one or more colonnades. |
| columel noun | A small column. |
| columniation noun | An arrangement or grouping of columns |
| cornicing noun | Cornices collectively |
| creasing noun | A layer of tiles forming a corona for a wall. |
| cresting noun | An ornamental finish on the top of a wall or ridge of a roof. |
| crocketed adjective | Having a crocket. |
| crowstep noun | A stair-step type of design at the top of the triangular gable end of a building. |
| crowstepped adjective | Having a crowstep. |
| cruck noun | A sturdy timber with a curve or angle used for primary framing of a timber house, usually used in pairs. |
| cullis noun | A gutter in a roof. |
| cyclostyle noun | A circular group of columns without a core. |
| cymatium noun | A type of molding that is wavelike in form. |
| cyme noun | = cyma |
| cymoid adjective | Resembling a cyma. |
| demilune adjective | In the shape of a half-moon, i.e. semicircular. |
| denticulate adjective | Having dentils or denticules. |
| echinus noun | The rounded moulding forming the bell of the capital of the Grecian Doric style, which is of a peculiar elastic curve. |
| ectype noun | An object in relievo or embossed. |
| entablature noun | All of that part of a classical temple above the capitals of the columns; includes the architrave, frieze, and cornice but not the roof. |
| epinaos noun | An open vestibule behind the nave, differentiated from the opisthodomos. |
| exedra noun | A semicircular recess, with stone benches, used as a place for discussion. |
| extrados noun | The outer or upper curve of an arch. |
| fenestral adjective | Relating to a window or windows. |
| fenestrated adjective | Having windows. |
| filleting noun | The protecting of a joint, as between roof and parapet wall, with mortar or cement, where flashing is employed in better work. |
| flanging noun | A flange. |
| floriated adjective | Having floral ornaments |
| fronton noun | A pediment. |
| gabling noun | Gables collectively. |
| gadroon noun | A godroon. |
| godroon verb | To ornament in this style. |
| gorgerin noun | In some columns, that part of the capital between the termination of the shaft and the annulet of the echinus, or the space between two neck moldings; the hypotrachelium. |
| gradin noun | Any of a series of terraced steps or seats, as in an arena or an altar. |
| gradine noun | Any member like a step, such as the raised back of an altar; a gradin. |
| groined adjective | Built with groins. |
| hagioscope noun | A small opening in an interior wall of a church, enabling those in the transept to view the high altar. |
| hanse noun | That part of an elliptical or many-centred arch which has the shorter radius and immediately adjoins the impost. |
| hemicycle noun | A semicircular structure |
| hypostyle adjective | Having a roof supported on a row of columns. |
| intertie noun | In any framed work, a horizontal tie other than sill and plate or other principal ties, securing uprights to one another. |
| intrados noun | The inner curve of an arch or vault. |
| kilopound noun | A non-SI unit of force equal to 1000 pounds-force. |
| lacunar noun | A sunken panel or coffer in a ceiling or a soffit. |
| lacunaria noun | Sunken panels; coffers |
| loggia noun | A roofed, open gallery, usually on an upper level. |
| lucarne noun | A dormer-window. |
| luthern noun | A dormer window. |
| metope noun | The architectural element between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze. |
| mirador noun | A tower that offers a panoramic view |
| miserere noun | A small projecting boss or bracket on the underside of the hinged seat of a church stall, intended to give some support to a standing worshipper when the seat is turned up; a misericord. |
| mutular adjective | Having or relating to mutules. |
| narthex noun | A western vestibule leading to the nave in some Christian churches. |
| newel noun | A central pillar around which a staircase spirals. |
| oriel noun | A large polygonal recess in a building, such as a bay window, forming a protrusion on the outer wall. |
| orle noun | A fillet under the ovolo of a capital. |
| ovolo noun | A classical convex moulding carved with an egg-and-dart ornament. |
| pedimented adjective | Furnished with a pediment |
| pendentive noun | The concave triangular sections of vaulting that provide the transition between a dome and the square base on which it is set and transfer the weight of the dome. |
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| pepperbox noun | A tower capped by a cupola, looking similar to a giant pepper shaker. |
| perron noun | A platform outside the raised entrance to a church or large building, or the steps leading to such a platform. US: stoop. |
| pluteus noun | A low screen between columns, especially one that surrounds the choir of a church |
| pugging noun | Mortar etc. laid between the joists under the boards of a floor, or within a partition, to deaden sound. |
| putlog noun | One of the short pieces of timber on which the planks forming the floor of a scaffold are laid, one end resting on the ledger of the scaffold, and the other in a hole left in the wall temporarily for the purpose. |
| quatrefoil noun | A symmetrical shape that forms the overall outline of four partially-overlapping circles of the same diameter. |
| quoined adjective | Furnished with a quoin. |
| quoining noun | The architectural elements, such as stone or brick, that form a quoin |
| sarking noun | Wood, felt, or other material placed under the shingles of a roof in order to provide support or insulation; the practice of furnishing roofs with such material; an installation of such material. |
| semidome noun | Half of a dome ("cut" vertically), used to cover a semicircular area. |
| skewback noun | The side of an arch; the course of masonry on the top of an abutment with a slope for the base of the arch to rest against. |
| skillion noun | A room built against the back of another building, having a separate roof. |
| slype noun | A covered passageway, especially one connecting the transept of a cathedral or monastery to the chapter house. |
| solidum noun | The die of a pedestal. |
| splayed adjective | Of a door or a window: bevelled so as to be larger on one side of the wall than on the other. |
| stringcourse noun | A thin projecting course of brickwork or stone that runs horizontally around a building, typically to emphasize the junction between floors. |
| stringpiece noun | A long piece of timber, forming a margin or edge of any piece of construction; especially one of the longitudinal pieces supporting a flight or run of stairs. |
| subbase noun | The lowest projecting part of a baseboard, a pedestal or a similar construct. |
| subshaft noun | A secondary or subsidiary shaft. |
| superblock noun | A very large block of buildings. |
| surbase noun | The uppermost part of the moulding of a baseboard, a pedestal or a similar construct |
| terrazzo noun | A faux-marble material used for flooring and countertops. |
| throating noun | A drip or dripstone. |
| trabeated adjective | Built with horizontal beams; furnished with an entablature |
| trabeation noun | Beams used instead of arches or vaulting. |
| triforium noun | The gallery of arches above the side-aisle vaulting in the nave of a church. |
| triglyph noun | A vertically channeled tablet of the Doric frieze. |
| trochilus noun | An annular moulding whose section is concave, like the edge of a pulley; a scotia. |
| trumeau noun | The pillar or center post supporting the lintel in the middle of a doorway or window opening, especially in a church. |
| trussing noun | The timbers, etc., that form a truss. |
| voussoir noun | One of a series of wedge-shaped bricks or stones forming an arch or vault. |
| weatherboarding noun | A type of wooden siding in which a house is sided with long, thin, overlapping boards. |
Meanings from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources