Word.ws English Dictionary

oriel

/ˈɔːɹiəl/

oriel noun: a large polygonal recess in a building, such as a bay window, forming a protrusion on the outer wall.

oriel: a large polygonal recess in a building, such as a bay window, forming a protrusion on the outer wall
Image: Rodw, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

oriel (plural oriels)

  1. A large polygonal recess in a building, such as a bay window, forming a protrusion on the outer wall.
    • The middle window of the oriel before her, just caught and reflected back the crimson light and colour. The ground below looked bright and warm compared with the shade around.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 202
    • The beams that thro' the Oriel shine / Make prisms in every carven glass, / And beaker brimm'd with noble wine.1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Day-Dream. The Sleeping Palace.”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 151
  2. (obsolete) A small apartment next to a hall, used for dining.

Proper noun capitalized: Oriel

Oriel

  1. (abbreviation, ellipsis, informal, Oxford University) Ellipsis of Oriel College, Oxford.

Forms of oriel

pluraloriels

Origin of oriel

From Middle English oriel, from Old French oriol (“gallery, corridor”), Late Latin oriolum (“portico, hall”), probably from Latin aureolus (“gilded”), applied to an apartment decorated with gilding. See oriole. Or a diminutive of Latin os (“mouth”).

Words formed from oriel

Questions about oriel

What does oriel mean?
Oriel means a large polygonal recess in a building, such as a bay window, forming a protrusion on the outer wall.
What part of speech is oriel?
Oriel can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce oriel?
Oriel is pronounced /ˈɔːɹiəl/.
What is the plural of oriel?
The plural of oriel is oriels.

Words near oriel in the dictionary

  1. orickite
  2. Oricks
  3. oricycle
  4. oricycles
  5. oridonin
  6. oriel
  7. orielled
  8. oriels
  9. Orielton
  10. orienate
  11. oriency

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: oriel (page history and authors); Oriel (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-oriel.wav.

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