terrace

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A flat, usually paved outdoor area next to a house or restaurant.

   We had dinner on the terrace, watching the sun go down.

2. 2
   noun

   A raised, flat strip of land with sloping sides, often used for farming on a hillside.

   Rice is grown on terraces cut into the steep mountainsides.

3. 3
   noun

   A row of similar houses joined together by shared walls.

   They live in a Victorian terrace near the station.

4. 4
   verb

   To shape land into a series of flat levels for farming.

   The Incas terraced the steep hillsides to grow their crops.

Simplified etymology

Terrace entered English in the early 16th century from a medieval French word meaning “rubble” or “platform,” based on Latin terra, “earth.” It first meant an open gallery and later a platform or balcony in a theatre. A terrace of houses originally meant a row built slightly above road level, a use recorded from the 1760s.

Borrowed from French terrasse, from Old Occitan terrassa, from terra (“land”). Doublet of terrasse.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary