chamber

American  

[cheym-ber] / ˈtʃeɪm bər /

noun

chambers plural

1. a room, usually private, in a house or apartment, especially a bedroom.

   She retired to her chamber.

2. a room in a palace or official residence.

3. the meeting hall of a legislative or other assembly.

4. Law. chambers,

   1. a place where a judge hears matters not requiring action in open court.

   2. the private office of a judge.

   3. (in England) the quarters or rooms that lawyers use to consult with their clients, especially in the Inns of Court.

5. a legislative, judicial, or other like body.

   the upper or the lower chamber of a legislature.

6. an organization of individuals or companies for a specified purpose.

7. the place where the moneys due a government are received and kept; a treasury or chamberlain's office.

8. (in early New England) any bedroom above the ground floor, generally named for the ground-floor room beneath it.

9. a compartment or enclosed space; cavity.

   a chamber of the heart.

10. (in a canal or the like) the space between any two gates of a lock.

11. a receptacle for one or more cartridges in a firearm, or for a shell in a gun or other cannon.

12. (in a gun) the part of the barrel that receives the charge.

13. chamber pot.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or performing chamber music.

   chamber players.

verb (used with object)

chambers, present (3rd person singular) chambered, past participle, past chambering present participle

1. to put or enclose in, or as in, a chamber.

2. to provide with a chamber.

chamber British  

/ ˈtʃeɪmbə /

noun

1. a meeting hall, esp one used for a legislative or judicial assembly

2. a reception room or audience room in an official residence, palace, etc

3. archaic a room in a private house, esp a bedroom

4. 1. a legislative, deliberative, judicial, or administrative assembly

   2. any of the houses of a legislature

5. an enclosed space; compartment; cavity

   the smallest chamber in the caves

6. the space between two gates of the locks of a canal, dry dock, etc

7. an enclosure for a cartridge in the cylinder of a revolver or for a shell in the breech of a cannon

8. obsolete a place where the money of a government, corporation, etc, was stored; treasury

9. short for chamber pot

10. the freezing room in an abattoir

11. (modifier) of, relating to, or suitable for chamber music

    a chamber concert

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verb

1. (tr) to put in or provide with a chamber

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• underchamber
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• chambers
  plural

Participles

• chambering
  present
• chambered
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• chamber
  simple
• chambers
  simple
• have chambered
  perfect
• has chambered
  perfect
• am chambering
  progressive
• are chambering
  progressive
• is chambering
  progressive
• have been chambering
  perfect progressive
• has been chambering
  perfect progressive

Past

• chambered
  simple
• had chambered
  perfect
• was chambering
  progressive
• were chambering
  progressive
• had been chambering
  perfect progressive

Future

• will chamber
  simple
• will have chambered
  perfect
• will be chambering
  progressive
• will have been chambering
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of chamber

1175–1225; Middle English chambre < Old French < Latin camera, variant of camara vaulted room, vault < Greek kamára

Explanation

A chamber is an enclosed space, often where a specific event usually takes place — such as a sleeping chamber or a torture chamber. The history of the word chamber is an interesting one. The Latin word for room was camera. The original word for camera was camera obscura, or "dark chamber," since it was a big black box. Now, the word chamber can refer to any enclosed space — such as the chamber of a gun or the four chambers of your heart.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

chamber chambers chambered chambering

But over the years, 41 women directly followed their deceased husbands into the lower chamber.

From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026

He lives in Albuquerque, N.M., about a mile above sea level, and he and his wife converted their bedroom into an altitude chamber to add about 3,000 more feet of elevation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

In 2023, a commemorative shield was installed a couple of seats away from where he used to sit in the chamber.

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

A reverse sprinkler works more like an "inside-out rocket," because water jets travel inward and enter the central chamber where the arms connect.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026

She slid out of the chamber like one of the lumpy treasure sacks, bouncing along over the bumpy cave floor.

From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein

The two chambers had disagreed on approach, however.

From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026

In an effort to combat vandalism, including the destruction of iron security gates on deep-water chambers and persistent littering, the company introduced the £2 charge.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

“The brick is like a 3-D checkerboard,” he said, explaining that it’s made up of a patchwork of blocks and open chambers with small passages throughout the stack for the heat to bounce around.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026

Excavations uncovered a funerary complex consisting of three limestone burial chambers containing Roman-era mummies and decorated wooden sarcophagi.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026

She leads Ivy, Rémy, and me out of the apartments, on the long walk to the princess's chambers.

From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton

The complex family tree of a Neolithic clan buried in a chambered tomb called Hazleton North shows the promise of DNA to reveal ancient relationships.

From Science Magazine ● Oct. 4, 2023

Other sites from the same period in history are close by, and include a stone circle at Torbreck and chambered cairn at Culduthel in Inverness.

From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2023

Maybe some drawings — especially the chambered spaces of domestic interiors, which can be quite complex — are more sophisticated than others in the subtlety of execution, suggesting skill developed over time.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2023

The strike of the hammer on the chambered shell needs a specific amount of force to detonate the primer.

From Slate ● Jan. 27, 2023

But his eyes are gray and chambered and shallow, and after a moment he returns to his spirals.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

Inspired by a hybrid of several technologies — pneumatics, mechanical springs and hydraulics — the semi-automatic rifle produces almost no recoil by transferring that energy into expelling shells and chambering the next rounds.

From Washington Times ● Jan. 19, 2023

The standard chambering for the Triple Lock was the .44 Special, although it was also offered in .38/40 and .45 Long Colt.

From Time Magazine Archive

Finally, Benellis are fast, spitting out empties and chambering fresh rounds more quickly than any other auto.

From Time Magazine Archive

The chambering machine is used only in clay or other soil which does not wash readily.

From Concrete Construction Methods and Costs by Gillette, Halbert Powers

Let not greediness and chambering overtake me, And give me not over to a shameless mind.

From Select Masterpieces of Biblical Literature by Moulton, Richard Green

Related Words

• apartment
• bedroom
• box
• cell
• cubicle
• hall
• room