Primary
''vestibule'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250804004855-00-⌔
vestibule - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Noun
vestibule (plural vestibules)
- (architecture) A small entrance hall, antechamber, passage, or room between the outer door and the main hall, lobby, or interior of a building. [from the 17th c.]
- ✤ Near-synonym: foyer
- ✤ Lydia’s voice was heard in the vestibule; the door was thrown open, and she ran into the room.1
- ✤ The purpose of the vestibule, at least in western Europe, was not to provide a resting-place for penitents, but to deaden the noise outside.2
- ✤ Some instinct warned Armitage that what was taking place was not a thing for unfortified eyes to see, so he brushed back the crowd with authority as he unlocked the vestibule door.3
- (architecture) A large entrance hall in a temple or palace.
- (rail transport) An enclosed entrance at the end of a railway passenger car.
- (anatomy) Any of a number of body cavities or channels, serving as or resembling an entrance to another bodily space. [from the 18th c.]
- ✤ The membrane of the vestibule in this animal is thrown into three folds. The margins of these folds, looking towards the vestibule, are approximated, and, following the law which is now known to regulate the formation of hollow tubes, doubtless unite and coalesce in the next higher species of fish.6
- ✤ The Vestibule (vestibulum nasi). — The paired vestibule may be considered an antechamber to the nasal fossa.7
- The central cavity of the bony labyrinth of the inner ear or the parts (such as the saccule and utricle) of the membranous labyrinth that it contains.
- The part of the left ventricle below the aortic orifice.
- The part of the mouth outside the teeth and gums.
- ✤ The incision of the mucosa over the premaxilla is traced a millimetre or two from the furrow that marks the bottom of the barely-defined vestibule.8
- Clipping of vulval vestibule: the space in the vulva between the labia minora and into which both the urethra and vagina open.
- ✤ She spread her labia further, both sets of lips protecting the vestibule, the delicate area between them.9
Verb
vestibule (third-person singular simple present vestibules, present participle vestibuling, simple past and past participle vestibuled)
- (transitive) To furnish with a vestibule or vestibules.
- ✤ the vestibuled platform10
Etymology
Early 17th century, borrowed from French vestibule (“entrance court”), from Latin vestibulum (“forecourt, entrance court; entrance”), from vestiō (“to dress, clothe, vest”) + -bulum (“place, location”, nominal suffix). Doublet of vestibulum.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈvɛ.stɪ.bjuːl/
- Audio (Southern England): 🔊
- (General American) IPA: /ˈvɛ.stəˌbjul/
Printed 2026-06-28.
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Link to original Footnotes
1813, Jane Austen, chapter 19, in Pride and Prejudice, volume 2: ↩
1913, Beda Julius Kleinschmidt, “Vestibule”, in Catholic Encyclopedia: ↩
1929 April, H. P. Lovecraft, “The Dunwich Horror/Chapter VI”, in Weird Tales: ↩
1912, Electric Railway Journal, volume XL, number 14, page 556: ↩
1960 November, “New electric multiple-units for British Railways: Glasgow Suburban”, in Trains Illustrated, page 660: ↩
1838, Joseph Garland, “Formation of the Ear”, in The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal , volume 17, page 333: ↩
1920, Jacob Parsons Schaeffer, The Nose, Paranasal Sinuses, Nasolacrimal Passageways, and Olfactory Organ in Man: A Genetic, Developmental, and Anatomico-physiological Consideration, page 73: ↩
2001, René Malek, Cleft Lip and Palate: Lesions, Pathophysiology and Primary Treatment, page 79: ↩
2021, Leone Ross, This One Sky Day, Faber & Faber Limited, page 318: ↩
1892, Brander Matthews, In the Vestibule Limited: ↩
Secondary
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