Word.ws English Dictionary

westwork

UK/ˈwɛstwɜːk/

westwork noun: the vaulted monumental structure at the western end of a church constructed in some medieval styles, flanked by two towers and containing the entrance.

Noun

westwork (plural westworks)

  1. The vaulted monumental structure at the western end of a church constructed in some medieval styles, flanked by two towers and containing the entrance.
    • Facing the raised sanctuary over the vast crypt they also often erected at the west end of the nave a towerlike structure with vaulted stories, that we call the "westwork."1987, Malcolm Quantrill, The Environmental Memory: Man and Architecture in the Landscape of Ideas, page 134

Forms of westwork

pluralwestworks

Origin of westwork

Calque of German Westwerk, from German West (“west”) + Werk (“work”); equivalent to English west + -work.

Questions about westwork

What does westwork mean?
Westwork means the vaulted monumental structure at the western end of a church constructed in some medieval styles, flanked by two towers and containing the entrance.
What part of speech is westwork?
Westwork is a noun.
How do you pronounce westwork?
Westwork is pronounced /ˈwɛstwɜːk/ (UK).
What is the plural of westwork?
The plural of westwork is westworks.

Words near westwork in the dictionary

  1. Westwick
  2. westwind
  3. Westwood
  4. Westwood Park
  5. Westwoods
  6. westwork
  7. westworks
  8. westy
  9. wet
  10. wet and messy
  11. wet and messy fetishism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: westwork (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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Cite this entry: “westwork.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/westwork. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.