antechamber
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of antechamber
1650–60; earlier antichamber < French antichambre, as translation of Italian anticamera, equivalent to anti- (< Latin ante- ante- ) + camera chamber
Explanation
An antechamber is an entryway or a small room that leads into a larger one. If you visit a friend who lives in a mansion, her butler may ask you to wait in the antechamber while he summons her. You're most likely to come across an antechamber in a very grand building or home — in most houses, a similar room would probably be called a "foyer" or a "hall." Sometimes the area where you wait before entering a museum or office is called an antechamber, but it's more often just a "waiting room." Palaces and crypts and pyramids often have antechambers. The word comes from the French antichambre.
Vocabulary lists containing antechamber
Florida's B.E.S.T. Roots: ante, anti
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Before You Know It: Ante
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The Night Circus
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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.
It was January 1998 and Robert Bourgi was waiting to see the Gabonese president Omar Bongo, in an antechamber at his seaside palace in Libreville.
From BBC • Sep. 28, 2024
As darkness blanketed the city, the only spectacle left was in parliament, where teenagers and young men bedded down for another night on the mattresses they have laid out in the grand antechamber.
From Washington Post • Aug. 2, 2022
Nearby, inside the antechamber of the secretariat, a separate building that houses the president’s office, people mill around examining piles of used books and political pamphlets.
From New York Times • Jul. 10, 2022
The paintings on display beyond the antechamber play on themes of spectacle, public perception and sleight of hand.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 19, 2022
He had jumped to the conclusion that the blood had come from a wounded knight—otherwise why should she have insisted on having them in the antechamber?
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
