cupola

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a small dome or domed structure built on top of a roof

   Sunlight entered the hall through windows in the cupola.

2. 2
   noun

   a small projecting turret on an armored vehicle, ship, or other structure

   The commander surveyed the road from the tank's cupola.

3. 3
   noun

   a vertical cylindrical furnace used for melting iron

   The foundry melted scrap iron in a cupola before casting it.

Borrowed from Italian cupola, from Late Latin cupula ("small tub"), a diminutive of Latin cupa ("tub or cask"). The architectural sense arose from the resemblance of a dome to an overturned cup.

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