hall
/hoːl/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.87 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
noun
A manor house (originally because a magistrate's court was held in the hall of his mansion).
noun
A building providing student accommodation at a university.
noun
A place for special professional education, or for conferring professional degrees or licences.
Example Sentences
- "The drinking fountain was out in the hall."
- "We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time."
- "The hotel had three halls for conferences, and two were in use by the convention."
- "The duke lived in a great hall overlooking the sea."
- "But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendome, Kate of Kate-hall."
- "The student government hosted several social events so that students from different halls would intermingle."
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English halle (“hall”), from Old English heall (“hall, dwelling, house, palace, temple, law-court”), from Proto-West Germanic *hallu (“hall”), from Proto-Germanic *hallō (“hall”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to hide, conceal”). Cognate with Scots hall, haw (“hall”), Dutch hal (“hall”), German Halle (“hall”), Danish hal (“hall, sports centre”), Faroese høll (“hall, palace”), Icelandic höll (“palace”), Norwegian hall (“hall”), Swedish hall (“hall”), Latin cella (“room, cell”), Sanskrit शाला (śā́lā, “house, mansion, hall”). Doublet of cell and cella.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /hoːl/
- British English: /hɔːl/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in People.