hall

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a large room for gatherings or entertainment

   lecture hall

2. 2
   noun

   a large building used by a college or university for teaching or research

   halls of learning

3. 3
   noun

   an interior passage or corridor onto which rooms open

   the elevators were at the end of the hall

4. 4
   noun

   A corridor; a hallway.

   The drinking fountain was out in the hall.

5. 5
   noun

   A large meeting room.

   The hotel had three halls for conferences, and two were in use by the convention.

6. 6
   noun

   A manor house (originally because a magistrate's court was held in the hall of his mansion).

   The duke lived in a great hall overlooking the sea.

7. 7
   noun

   A building providing student accommodation at a university.

   The student government hosted several social events so that students from different halls would intermingle.

8. 8
   noun

   Cleared passageway through a crowd, as for dancing.

   Then cry, a hall, a hall! Come, father Rosin, with your fiddle now.

Etymology

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