window

[win-doh]

noun

1. an opening in the wall of a building, the side of a vehicle, etc., for the admission of air or light, or both, commonly fitted with a frame in which are set movable sashes containing panes of glass.

2. such an opening with the frame, sashes, and panes of glass, or any other device, by which it is closed.

3. the frame, sashes, and panes of glass, or the like, intended to fit such an opening.

   Finally the builders put in the windows.

4. a windowpane.

5. anything likened to a window in appearance or function, as a transparent section in an envelope, displaying the address.

6. a period of time regarded as highly favorable for initiating or completing something.

   Investors have a window of perhaps six months before interest rates rise.

7. Military.,  chaff.

8. Geology.,  fenster.

9. Pharmacology.,  the drug dosage range that results in a therapeutic effect, a lower dose being insufficient and a higher dose being toxic.

10. Aerospace.

    1. launch window.

    2. a specific area at the outer limits of the earth's atmosphere through which a spacecraft must reenter to arrive safely at its planned destination.

11. Computers.,  a section of a display screen that can be created for viewing information from another part of a file or from another file.

    The split screen feature enables a user to create two or more windows.

verb (used with object)

1. to furnish with a window or windows.

2. Obsolete.,  to display or put in a window.

window

/ ˈwɪndəʊ /

noun

1. a light framework, made of timber, metal, or plastic, that contains glass or glazed opening frames and is placed in a wall or roof to let in light or air or to see through

2. an opening in the wall or roof of a building that is provided to let in light or air or to see through

3. See windowpane

4. the display space in and directly behind a shop window

   the dress in the window

5. any opening or structure resembling a window in function or appearance, such as the transparent area of an envelope revealing an address within

6. an opportunity to see or understand something usually unseen

   a window on the workings of Parliament

7. a period of unbooked time in a diary, schedule, etc

8. short for launch window weather window

9. physics a region of the spectrum in which a medium transmits electromagnetic radiation See also radio window

10. computing an area of a VDU display that may be manipulated separately from the rest of the display area; typically different files can be displayed simultaneously in different overlapping windows

11. (modifier) of or relating to a window or windows

    a window ledge

12. informal,  dispensed with; disregarded

verb

1. (tr) to furnish with or as if with windows

Other Word Forms

• windowless adjective
• windowy adjective
• unwindowed adjective
• well-windowed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of window¹

1175–1225; Middle English windoge, windowe < Old Norse vindauga, equivalent to vindr wind ¹ + auga eye

Word History and Origins

Origin of window¹

C13: from Old Norse vindauga, from vindr _wind ¹ + auga _eye ¹

Idioms and Phrases

see out the window.

Example Sentences

“He rolls his window down and he has his hand on his cheek,” Missy recalls.

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But for a brief window when the “forgotten generation” was reaching college age, student loans conveyed all of the promise of American upward mobility with none of the pitfalls.

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For Emily Hough, nature was too often simply something "out there", a world apart from her, a view from a hospital window.

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Churchill also watched as, he later said, “under my very window a gentleman cast himself down fifteen storeys and was dashed to pieces, causing a wild commotion and the arrival of the fire brigade.”

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A handful of prisoners are chained to a wall in a room and only one of them can see through the window high up.

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