cellar

American  

[sel-er] / ˈsɛl ər /

noun

• cellars
  plural

1. a room, or set of rooms, for the storage of food, fuel, etc., wholly or partly underground and usually beneath a building.

2. an underground room or story.

3. wine cellar.

4. Sports. the lowest position in a group ranked in order of games won.

   The team was in the cellar for most of the season.

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verb (used with object)

• cellars,
  present (3rd person singular)
• cellared,
  past participle,  past
• cellaring
  present participle

1. to place or store in a cellar.

cellar British  

/ ˈsɛlə /

noun

1. an underground room, rooms, or storey of a building, usually used for storage Compare basement

2. a place where wine is stored

3. a stock of bottled wines

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verb

1. (tr) to store in a cellar

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• cellarless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cellars
  plural

Participles

• cellaring
  present
• cellared
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• cellar
  simple
• cellars
  simple
• have cellared
  perfect
• has cellared
  perfect
• am cellaring
  progressive
• are cellaring
  progressive
• is cellaring
  progressive
• have been cellaring
  perfect progressive
• has been cellaring
  perfect progressive

Past

• cellared
  simple
• had cellared
  perfect
• was cellaring
  progressive
• were cellaring
  progressive
• had been cellaring
  perfect progressive

Future

• will cellar
  simple
• will have cellared
  perfect
• will be cellaring
  progressive
• will have been cellaring
  perfect progressive

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cellar cellars cellared cellaring

It boasts of amenities including a resort-style pool, hot tub, cold plunge, tennis court and 5,000-bottle wine cellar.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026

The garden level holds a media room, guest room, laundry room and a cedar-lined 636-bottle wine cellar carved from one of the home’s original eccentricities: a secret tunnel.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

The notion that red wine must be served at room temperature is an outdated concept based on it being kept in the much cooler conditions of a cellar, says Bartolotta.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

In Paris, “Franklin wasted no time, hiring a French cook and stocking his cellar with over a thousand bottles of wine.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026

The second is her sitting on a wooden stool weaving a Persian rug in the dark on a giant loom hidden deep in the cellar of their house.

From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri

And there may have been even more important acts, if indeed the hotel’s cellars were used to hide escaped French prisoners of war.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

“I have felt for a long time that there are thousands and thousands of American citizens with cellars full of guns,” Close said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2026

That preference held across a wide range of indoor environments, from science labs to art studios, locker rooms to wine cellars.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 11, 2024

Soon, families began showing up at his workshop with violins that had been stored away in attics and cellars, each with its own haunting story.

From New York Times ● Mar. 21, 2024

Meetings, called “Home Evenings,” took place in cellars, bams, empty buildings, and other places far away from adults.

From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

That said, it could also be cellared for a few years.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 27, 2025

“It transforms cellared vegetables and stale bread into something absolutely magical,” she said.

From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2025

Owen: It’s unclear where the wine comes from, although the label notes it’s cellared and bottled by DC Flynt MW Selections in Modesto, California.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 16, 2021

An adage had it that you drank wine cellared by your parents, and bought wine for your children.

From New York Times ● Feb. 13, 2020

They had many towns—some even of two hundred houses, of which dwellings many were cellared, framed, and glazed.

From The Hidden Children by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

Stone’s Sysak, who has 2,600 bottles in his personal collection, shares Hancock’s reservations about cellaring IPAs and hoppy ales.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 29, 2015

Those transformations make cellaring fun, though the results can be divisive.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 29, 2015

When Dogfish Head released the latest batch of 120 Minute, in mid-August, beer lovers lined up to pay $200 a case, with many telling Calagione they had cellaring plans.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 29, 2015

“Different styles improve in a positive manner, whether that’s over six months or six years,” says Bill Sysak, craft beer ambassador for Stone Brewing in California, who has emerged as a well-regarded expert in cellaring.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 29, 2015

He'll break out some day like a keg of ale With too much independent frenzy in it; And all for cellaring what he knows won't keep, And what he'd best forget—but that he can't.

From The Man Against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Related Words

• apartment
• basement
• vault