portico
Americannoun
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porticoes,
plural
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porticos
plural
noun
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a covered entrance to a building; porch
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a covered walkway in the form of a roof supported by columns or pillars, esp one built on to the exterior of a building
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of portico
1595–1605; < Italian < Latin porticus porch, portico. See port 4
Explanation
If your host suggests that you take your iced tea out to the portico, you can follow him onto the porch. A portico is a front porch with columns. If you've ever seen pictures of the United States Capitol building or the Pantheon in Rome, you've seen a portico. While a porch that is held up with grand columns is a portico, a longer covered area or walkway with columns is called a colonnade. The root of portico, is simply the Latin word for "porch," porticus.
Vocabulary lists containing portico
Built To Last: Architectural Parlance
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The Lightning Thief
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Ancient Greece - Middle School and High School
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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:
This includes an extensive £912,000 program to repair structural defects to Kensington Palace, including to strengthen load-bearing portico columns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
Bulletproof glass encasing the portico for his annual appearance with the Easter Bunny?
From Slate ● Apr. 28, 2026
Trump finally appeared on the portico of the Blue Room after 7 p.m. on Wednesday to welcome new interns to what the White House described as a “soiree” on the South Lawn.
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2025
I ran from the White House briefing room, past the portico entrance of the West Wing to our camera position on the lawn, and flung on an ear piece connecting me to the studio.
From BBC ● May 5, 2025
On their right a wide and graceful parkland led up to a great house with a classical portico as brilliant as icing sugar under the moon.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
Its White City—a temporary demonstration of the grandeur of classical architecture, with Greek and Roman-style colonnades and porticoes arranged around a lake—had been designed by America’s greatest architects.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
The medieval porticoes are a cherished meeting place for Bologna’s residents, sheltering them from the sun and rain and serving as a crossroads of civic life.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 28, 2021
For months, the alleys, porticoes and campos reverberated with Italian, and even with Venetian dialect.
From New York Times ● Jun. 3, 2020
Front doors are set back several feet from the facades to create sheltering porticoes.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 28, 2017
Icons gloomed from the porticoes or raised stiff fingers in the glinting chapels.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Washington is a city obsessed with projecting power through stone, and littered with overinflated federal buildings of white marble dressed up with colonnades, pediments and porticos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
The entire city is filled with beautiful archways and pillars and covered porticos.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 18, 2022
At Bard, the weather drove us inside and out, from his office to benches and tables and porticos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2022
The route passes through foyers, porticos, libraries and a ballroom in which they hear a lively period waltz.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 18, 2022
Clinging to the mountainside were dozens of multileveled palaces—a city of mansions—all with white-columned porticos, gilded terraces, and bronze braziers glowing with a thousand fires.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
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.
