dormer
Americannoun
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dormers
plural
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Also called dormer window. a vertical window in a projection built out from a sloping roof.
-
the entire projecting structure.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of dormer
1585–95; < Middle French dormoir dormitory
Explanation
Almost like a picture in a pop-up book, a dormer is a peaked extension, with a window, that rises up from the roof of a house. The word dormer often refers to the window itself. A dormer, with roots in the French dormir (“to sleep”), often extends from an upstairs bedroom. The word has a sense of old-fashioned charm about it. Though you may occasionally still see a face peeking out from a dormer, the word brings to mind old stories such as the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, “The Snow Queen”: “They each had a little dormer window, and one only had to step over the gutter to get from one house to the other.”
Vocabulary lists containing dormer
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Built To Last: Architectural Parlance
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Architecture 101
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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:
Having had "a brief look at the roof space" on the applicant's house, he said things such as dormer windows could reduce roof space, meaning "less panels" could be installed.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
“Hi, friend. It’s Angel. The dormer went really well,” she wrote.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 30, 2023
A steep roof and dormer windows accentuate the Traditional style.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2019
That something might be a chimney, a plumbing vent pipe, a powered attic fan, a turbine vent or a dormer, or it might be where two roof surfaces intersect.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 8, 2019
He misses the sound of rain on the zinc roof above his dormer; the feral energy of the orphans; the scratchy singing of Frau Elena as she rocks a baby in the parlor.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Their dormers hadn’t been built yet; the lawns hardly had grass; the trees were plants held steady by sticks, a piece of paper attached by wire to the branches: “Apple tree.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
The architectural towers sport cupolas, buttresses, dormers and booming cannons, and they’re decorated with floral garlands, war-trophy cartouches and jewel-toned colors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 13, 2022
Some people also paid for customized add-ons to their homes, like dormers or a porch.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 27, 2022
Cloaked in Victorian mining antiquity, buildings are bedecked with towers, turrets, dormers and wraparound porches, while the adjoining slopes are dotted with shaft holes, multihued rock tailing piles and tottering old mine shacks.
From New York Times ● Oct. 2, 2020
And so Harry and Cato began their life at Mrs. De Boer’s, living in one of the narrow dormers in the attic.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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.
