ballroom

C2+ Topic:House & Home

Also spelled ball-room

US /ˈbɔlˌrum/ UK /ˈbɔːlruːm/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a large room used for formal dancing

The grand ballroom glittered with chandeliers as the waltz began.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a large room used for... dancehall

Word family

Related forms ball room

Etymology

From ball ('a formal dance') + room; ball from French bal, from Old French baller ('to dance'), from Late Latin ballare.

baller Old French ballare la-lat

View etymology graph ->

Topics

House & Home Register & Style

External links

# ballroom

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈbɔlˌrum/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈbɔːlruːm/

## Meanings
1. a large room used for formal dancing

## Examples
- The grand ballroom glittered with chandeliers as the waltz began.

## Synonyms
- dancehall

## Related Forms
- ball
- room

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: baller
- Root: ballare

## Etymology
From ball ('a formal dance') + room; ball from French bal, from Old French baller ('to dance'), from Late Latin ballare.

## AI Etymology
ballroom comes from ball ('a formal dance') + room; ball from French bal, from Old French baller ('to dance'), from Late Latin ballare. Morphologically, the word is transparent as a compound: its parts remain visible in the modern spelling, while the older history of those parts supplies the deeper ancestry. In modern use, the noun sense is "a large room used for formal dancing", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. The wider word family includes related English forms such as ball, room, showing how the same base continues to support neighboring English vocabulary. The principal historical forms in the chain include Old French baller, Latin ballare, which anchor the explanation in named linguistic material.

## Topics
- House & Home
- Register & Style

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