vestibule

American  

[ves-tuh-byool] / ˈvɛs təˌbjul /

noun

• vestibules
  plural

1. a passage, hall, or antechamber between the outer door and the interior parts of a house or building.

2. Railroads. an enclosed space at the end of a passenger car, serving as a sheltered entrance to the car from another car or from outside the train.

3. Anatomy, Zoology. any of various cavities or hollows regarded as forming an approach or entrance to another cavity or space, as that of the internal ear.

---

verb (used with object)

vestibuled, vestibuling

1. to provide with a vestibule.

vestibule British  

/ ˈvɛstɪˌbjuːl /

noun

1. a small entrance hall or anteroom; lobby

2. any small bodily cavity or space at the entrance to a passage or canal

---

vestibule Scientific  

/ vĕs′tə-byo̅o̅l′ /

1. An oval cavity in the inner ear that together with the semicircular canals makes up the organ that maintains equilibrium in vertebrates.

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• vestibular
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• vestibules
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of vestibule

First recorded in 1615–25, vestibule is from the Latin word vestibulum forecourt, entrance

---

Explanation

A vestibule is a little area just inside the main door of a building, but before a second door. You often find vestibules in churches, because they help keep heat from escaping every time someone enters or exits. The noun vestibule, pronounced "VES-tih-bule," probably comes from the Latin word vestibulum, which means “entrance court.” From about 1880 to 1930 vestibules were popular features in new homes because they create an additional barrier that keeps heat or cool air in and street noise out. If you have a vestibule, you can hang coats and leave shoes and gloves there instead of bringing them into the living room, kitchen and so on.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vestibule vestibules vestibuled

Details make all the difference in the small powder room by Rebecca J. Hansen, who explains that both the room and the nearby vestibule are focused on mixing patterns while keeping a consistent color palette.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 29, 2026

Federal officials detained two Target workers in the vestibule of a store and frequently gathered in store parking lots.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026

Taking the photographs in a vestibule at the end of a carriage, Edwards taped a large bag to the opposite window to reduce the glare - though the train conductor was not so happy.

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2024

Julia Andreasen, a graduate student at UM, was trapped in her tent for 24 hours after drifting snow buried the vestibule.

From Science Magazine ● Apr. 18, 2024

The hook gave way and, unprepared for the sudden yielding, I fell into the vestibule, off balance.

From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes

Then White went to her old neighborhood in Southeast, sleeping in building vestibules.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 14, 2022

Some schools had security vestibules at their entrances and buzz-in systems to get inside from the outdoors.

From Salon ● May 27, 2022

That increased functionality starts right at the front door: The pandemic led to a resurgence in the popularity of foyers and vestibules at the main entryway.

From Seattle Times ● May 3, 2022

We found “Jail” sheathed in a plexiglass-fronted wood frame in one of the vestibules.

From New York Times ● Mar. 23, 2022

Despite Pullman’s vestibules ice as fine as dust settled between coaches and filled Burnham’s train with the tang of deep winter.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Train Number Three, the "Flying Kestrel," vestibuled, had crossed the yellow Rubicon of the West and was mounting toward the Occident up the gentle acclivities of the Great Plain.

From A Romance in Transit by Francis Lynde

To our English cousins these ships were at first as much of a curiosity as our vestibuled trains were a few years since.

From American Merchant Ships and Sailors by Willis J. (Willis John) Abbot

From the grotto thus vestibuled, issued hilariously forth the most considerable stream of the glen; which, seemingly overjoyed to find daylight in Willamilla, sprang into the arbor with a cheery, white bound.

From Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. I by Herman Melville

For his apparel would have been more in place in the bare colonist cars of the first section than in the vestibuled, luxurious rear coaches of the second.

From Desert Conquest or, Precious Waters by Clarence H. (Clarence Herbert) Rowe

Solid vestibuled trains Daily, heated by steam, illuminated by Pintsch light,

From Spalding's Baseball Guide and Official League Book for 1895 by Henry Chadwick

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• doorway
• foyer
• hallway
• porch

---