vestibule Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun a large entrance or reception room or area
entrance hall; anteroom; hall; antechamber; foyer; lobby.
noun any of various bodily cavities leading to another cavity (as of the ear or vagina)

L. vestibulum, of uncertain origin: cf. F. vestibule.

The porch or entrance into a house; a hall or antechamber next the entrance; a lobby; a porch; a hall. Syn. -- Hall; passage. -- Vestibule, Hall, Passage. A vestibule is a small apartment within the doors of a building. A hall is the first large apartment beyond the vestibule, and, in the United States, is often long and narrow, serving as a passage to the several apartments. In England, the hall is generally square or oblong, and a long, narrow space of entrance is called a passage, not a hall, as in America. Vestibule is often used in a figurative sense to denote a place of entrance.
"The citizens of Rome placed the images of their ancestors in the vestibules of their houses." Bolingbroke