gable

¹ American  

[gey-buhl] / ˈgeɪ bəl /

noun

Architecture.

1. the portion of the front or side of a building enclosed by or masking the end of a pitched roof.

2. a decorative member suggesting a gable, used especially in Gothic architecture.

3. Also called gable wall.  a wall bearing a gable.

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Gable ² American  

[gey-buhl] / ˈgeɪ bəl /

noun

1. (William) Clark, 1901–60, U.S. film actor.

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gable ¹ British  

/ ˈɡeɪbəl /

noun

1. the triangular upper part of a wall between the sloping ends of a pitched roof ( gable roof )

2. a triangular ornamental feature in the form of a gable, esp as used over a door or window

3. the triangular wall on both ends of a gambrel roof

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Gable ² British  

/ ˈɡeɪbəl /

noun

1. ( William ) Clark. 1901–60, US film actor. His films include It Happened One Night (1934), San Francisco (1936), Gone with the Wind (1939), Mogambo (1953), and The Misfits (1960)

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Other Word Forms

• gable-like adjective
• gabled adjective
• gablelike adjective

Etymology

Origin of gable

First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, from Old French (of Germanic origin); cognate with Old Norse gafl; compare Old English gafol, geafel “a fork”

Explanation

A gable is the triangular part of a house's exterior wall that supports a pointed or peaked roof. Gothic-style houses are well known for their many gables. Houses and buildings with pitched roofs have front-facing or side-facing gables — or often, both. The shape and structure of these pointed gables help support a house's roof and give the building a particular architectural style. Nathaniel Hawthorne famously wrote about a building with this architectural feature in The House of the Seven Gables. Gable, originally an Old French word meaning "facade or front," is from the Old Norse gafl, "gable-end," or "gable."

Example Sentences

Among them are working drawings that prescribe the profile of every block of stone, each keyed to its exact place in the building, whether gable, tracery or buttress.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 18, 2026

It is thought that the carvings which came from Holy Trinity include a flower and two gable ends.

From BBC • Apr. 8, 2023

That is where they built their current Colonial-style home with a gable roof and hardwood floors, three bedrooms and four full baths, according to local property records.

From Washington Post • Jan. 13, 2023

Todd Brunner buys this home, with three upstairs bedrooms and a steep, gable roof, in the spring of 2003.

From Salon • Nov. 17, 2022

At the top, she stands; she has the sense of a long slope-walled space pressed beneath the gable of the roof.

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

Related Words

• ceiling
• house