rotunda
Americannoun
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a round building, especially one with a dome.
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a large and high circular hall or room in a building, especially one surmounted by a dome.
noun
Etymology
Origin of rotunda
1680–90; alteration of Italian rotonda, noun use of feminine of rotondo < Latin rotundus rotund
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.
Go the Capitol rotunda and look up at the dome, where Constantino Brumidi’s fresco The Apotheosis of Washington, painted during the Civil War, shows Washington in heaven, flanked by goddesses.
From Slate • Feb. 16, 2026
In a disco-ball-decorated rotunda, five Optimus bots performed a dance routine to Haddaway’s “What Is Love.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 3, 2026
“President Kennedy, who at one point worked as a senator in this building and would often walk through this very rotunda, once said, ‘In a democracy, every citizen, regardless of interest in politics, holds office.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 21, 2025
It was the coldest inauguration day in 45 years, meaning that the planned outdoor ceremony had to be scrapped and moved inside of the Capitol’s rotunda, which holds considerably fewer people.
From Salon • Jan. 21, 2025
Three stories above the rotunda floor, just below the Wonder Dome, there was a series of ten arched windows set between the recessed statue nooks.
From "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library" by Chris Grabenstein
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.
