third space

British

noun

informal the coffee shop considered as an alternative to a bar or restaurant as a place to socialize outside the home

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

As Weibo’s popularity exploded in 2010, the internet seemed like “a third space unshackled by the rules that bound the rest of the nation’s institutions.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 6, 2026

For Lorell, the dive bar exists as a third space.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 20, 2024

And it isn’t in the form of run clubs, which have become the tantamount third space for sparking romance.

From Slate • Nov. 9, 2024

In a time in which the decline of the third space is being rapidly observed, bookstores can fill that void.

From Salon • Oct. 5, 2024

If you bleed into the third space, you bleed into the space between the skin and the flesh.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023