dining hall

American  

noun

• dining halls
  plural

1. a large room in which meals are served to members of a special group and their guests, as to the students and faculty of a college.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• dining halls
  plural

Etymology

Origin of dining hall

First recorded in 1660–70

Explanation

A dining-hall is a large space where many people eat at the same time. If you go to college and live in a dormitory, you'll probably eat most of your meals in a dining-hall. You can use the word dining-hall when you're talking about a cafeteria or another group space for eating. You'll find dining-halls at universities, camps. and boarding schools. The word hall. a long room, comes from the Old English root heall, "spacious roofed residence," and dining is rooted in the Old French disner, "to have a meal."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dining hall

Since her dining hall days, Monroe now makes one Trader Joe’s trip per week, which usually comes out to about $45.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026

Often, I’ll spot someone I half-know across the dining hall and then stand there doing the mental math.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026

“In most CCRCs, when you go down to the dining hall, half the people have walkers or canes. In the promotional literature, you don’t see that at all,” Horowitz said.

From MarketWatch ● May 8, 2026

As I look back on my favorite egg recipes, I’m reminded of my childhood and early college years eating at the campus dining hall.

From Salon ● Mar. 21, 2026

Indeed, the dining hall looked more like a junk shop now, with all the items stacked in piles—there were Bunsen burners, dirty socks, tinned herring, a box of salt....

From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood

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