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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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.
They’re doing it from this little antechamber through 7 feet of tubing.
From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2026
An antechamber off the Oval Office was decorated with framed magazine covers of the 47th President.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
A portrait of the thin-mustachioed director as a saintly figure sits alongside stained glass recreations of some of his most famous collaborators, including Divine and David Lochary, in a chapel-like antechamber.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2023
Inside the underground crypt and its antechamber, archaeologists found 400 urns containing the mixture of human ashes, coal, rubber and plant roots.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2022
“This is merely the antechamber, the entrance hall,” said Dumbledore after a moment or two.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
