Word.ws English Dictionary

compluvium

compluvium noun: a space left unroofed over the court of a dwelling in Ancient Rome, through which the rain fell into the impluvium or cistern.

Noun

compluvium (plural compluvia)

  1. A space left unroofed over the court of a dwelling in Ancient Rome, through which the rain fell into the impluvium or cistern.
    • In the centre of the floor of the atrium a portion was sunk for the reception of rain water; this was termed the impluvium; and above it an opening of similar dimensions was left in the ceiling or roof, termed the compluvium.1881, William Audsley, Popular Dictionary of Architecture and the Allied Arts: Aquila to Baptisterium

Forms of compluvium

pluralcompluvia

Origin of compluvium

Borrowed from Latin compluvium.

Questions about compluvium

What does compluvium mean?
Compluvium means a space left unroofed over the court of a dwelling in Ancient Rome, through which the rain fell into the impluvium or cistern.
What part of speech is compluvium?
Compluvium is a noun.
What is the plural of compluvium?
The plural of compluvium is compluvia.

Words near compluvium in the dictionary

  1. complotypes
  2. complt.
  3. Complute
  4. Complutensian
  5. compluvia
  6. compluvium
  7. comply
  8. complying
  9. complyingly
  10. compmag
  11. compo

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: compluvium (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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