hall

Meaning

1. A corridor; a hallway.
2. A large meeting room.
3. A manor house (originally because a magistrate's court was held in the hall of his mansion).
4. A building providing student accommodation at a university.
5. The principal room of a secular medieval building.
6. (obsolete) Cleared passageway through a crowd, as for dancing.
7. A place for special professional education, or for conferring professional degrees or licences.
8. A living room.
9. A college's canteen, which is often but not always coterminous with a traditional hall.
10. A meal served and eaten at a college's hall.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/hɔːl/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English halle, from Old English heall (“hall, dwelling, house; palace, temple; law-court”), from Proto-West Germanic *hallu, 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”), Norwegian hall (“hall”), Swedish hall (“hall”), Icelandic höll (“palace”), Latin cella (“room, cell”), Sanskrit शाला (śā́lā, “house, mansion, hall”). Doublet of cell and cella.