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.
An antechamber off the Oval Office was decorated with framed magazine covers of the 47th President.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
Who should then be ushered into the same antechamber but Roland Dumas, former French foreign minister and right-hand man of ruling Socialist President François Mitterrand, Chirac’s arch-rival.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2024
The paintings on display beyond the antechamber play on themes of spectacle, public perception and sleight of hand.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 19, 2022
So it was that we found ourselves in an ornate antechamber on Friday afternoon, being instructed on where to stand, where to sit and when to sit once in the presence of the president.
From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2021
At last they came out into a dim antechamber near the roof.
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
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.
