piano nobile

American  

[pyah-naw naw-bee-le] / ˈpyɑ nɔ ˈnɔ bi lɛ /

noun

Italian.

piani nobili plural

1. the principal story of a large building, as of a palace or villa.

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piano nobile British  

/ ˈpjɑːnəʊ ˈnəʊbɪlɪ /

noun

1. architect the main floor of a large house, containing the reception rooms: usually of lofty proportions

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• piani nobili
  plural

Etymology

Origin of piano nobile

Italian: great floor

Example Sentences

The operatic museum in which they reside has many rooms, even on the piano nobile that both by right will occupy.

From The Guardian • Jun. 20, 2013

March 2007 Belgian designer and antiques dealer Axel Vervoordt’s apartment is on the piano nobile of the 15th-century Palazzo Alverà in Venice, Italy.

From Architectural Digest • Mar. 1, 2010

Houses were being showered on them; on all sides he seemed to see beneficent spirits winging toward them, laden with everything from a piano nobile in Venice to a camp in the Adirondacks.

From The Glimpses of the Moon by Wharton, Edith

You were crossing the garden—you were bending over the sun-dial—and I spied upon you from a window of the piano nobile.

From My Friend Prospero by Harland, Henry

He was in the octagonal room on the piano nobile of the castle, where his lost ladies of old years smiled on him from their frames.

From My Friend Prospero by Harland, Henry