cellar
Americannoun
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a room, or set of rooms, for the storage of food, fuel, etc., wholly or partly underground and usually beneath a building.
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an underground room or story.
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Sports. the lowest position in a group ranked in order of games won.
The team was in the cellar for most of the season.
verb (used with object)
noun
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an underground room, rooms, or storey of a building, usually used for storage Compare basement
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a place where wine is stored
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a stock of bottled wines
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cellar
1175–1225; Middle English celer < Anglo-French < Latin cellārium storeroom, equivalent to cell ( a ) cell + -ārium -ary; later respelling to reflect Latin form; see -er 2, -ar 2
Explanation
A cellar is a basic, unfinished basement. In a very old house, the cellar might have stone walls and a rough dirt floor. Your cellar might basically be a basement, a place you keep your tools and do your laundry. Some cellars have specific purposes, including a storm cellar, where you take cover during a tornado or other storm, and a root cellar, where you store potatoes and other root vegetables during the cold months of the year. This kind of cellar comes the closest to the meaning of the Latin root, cellarium: "pantry or storeroom."
Vocabulary lists containing cellar
Salt to the Sea
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"Marionettes, Inc." by Ray Bradbury
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"After Apple-Picking" by Robert Frost
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
People cross city and state lines to wait a couple of hours for a drink at the Farmer’s Cellar.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026
The "Salt Cellar", a golden sculpture made by Florentine artist Benvenuto Cellini in 1543 for King of France Francis I, disappeared from Vienna's Museum of Fine Arts at dawn on May 12, 2003.
From Barron's • Oct. 20, 2025
But New York City is also where he found himself, spending late nights at the Comedy Cellar and the Boston Comedy Club.
From Los Angeles Times • May 17, 2025
In 1981, their group won the inaugural Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival, for their production of The Cellar Tapes.
From BBC • Jan. 14, 2025
Thy monstrous Baroque-pearls of energies will time soon, as the artists in the Green Cellar do with physical pearls, use up in the finishing of a fine figure!
From Titan: A Romance v. 1 (of 2) by Richter, Jean Paul Friedrich
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
