portico
Americannoun
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porticoes,
plural
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porticos
plural
noun
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a covered entrance to a building; porch
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a covered walkway in the form of a roof supported by columns or pillars, esp one built on to the exterior of a building
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of portico
1595–1605; < Italian < Latin porticus porch, portico. See port 4
Explanation
If your host suggests that you take your iced tea out to the portico, you can follow him onto the porch. A portico is a front porch with columns. If you've ever seen pictures of the United States Capitol building or the Pantheon in Rome, you've seen a portico. While a porch that is held up with grand columns is a portico, a longer covered area or walkway with columns is called a colonnade. The root of portico, is simply the Latin word for "porch," porticus.
Vocabulary lists containing portico
Built To Last: Architectural Parlance
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The Lightning Thief
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Ancient Greece - Middle School and High School
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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.
See Examples For:
The portico was self-contained; at the press of a button Colin turned it into a prison cell.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Bulletproof glass encasing the portico for his annual appearance with the Easter Bunny?
From Slate ● Apr. 28, 2026
Trump finally appeared on the portico of the Blue Room after 7 p.m. on Wednesday to welcome new interns to what the White House described as a “soiree” on the South Lawn.
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2025
The administration invited dozens of influencers to the White House for this year’s State of the Union address, where they recorded selfies from the portico as the president’s motorcade came and went from the Capitol.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2024
The ghost passed through the portico and disappeared inside.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
Its White City—a temporary demonstration of the grandeur of classical architecture, with Greek and Roman-style colonnades and porticoes arranged around a lake—had been designed by America’s greatest architects.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
Dozens of porticoes along the outer walls are bricked in and divided into dark, gated rooms holding saints’ bones and candlelit altars.
From New York Times ● Aug. 30, 2022
Back in Trinidad, we park on a quiet street of red-tiled rooftops and shuttered porticoes, where we’ll sleep later.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 24, 2018
Surrounded by columns, fountains, porticoes and an outdoor fireplace, it feels more like the Mediterranean than St. Louis.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 13, 2018
Some had domes and columned porticoes, like national monuments.
From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan
Washington is a city obsessed with projecting power through stone, and littered with overinflated federal buildings of white marble dressed up with colonnades, pediments and porticos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
At Bard, the weather drove us inside and out, from his office to benches and tables and porticos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2022
Once rioters were outside, D.C. police handled removing them from the external stairs, porticos and balconies of the Capitol.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 6, 2021
Get a taste of royal living with a stay in the Taj Jai Mahal Palace, with stately columned porticos and 18 acres of gardens.
From New York Times ● Nov. 29, 2018
Clinging to the mountainside were dozens of multileveled palaces—a city of mansions—all with white-columned porticos, gilded terraces, and bronze braziers glowing with a thousand fires.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
