Hall Meaning
/hɔːl/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA corridor; a hallway.
nounA large meeting room.
Sentence Examples
The excited audience ran into the concert hall.
The student hall is for benefit of the students.
Her brother was standing in the front hall.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The students gathered in the large school ____ for assembly.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The grand entrance ____ was lined with ancient suits of armor and massive portraits of the family's ancestors.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time."
— 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
"But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendome, Kate of Kate-hall."
— c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
"Then cry, a hall, a hall! Come, father Rosin, with your fiddle now."
— 1633 (first performance), Ben Jonson, “A Tale of a Tub. A Comedy […]”, in The Works of Beniamin Jonson, […] (Third Folio), London: […] Thomas Hodgkin, for H[enry] Herringman, E. Brewster, T. Bassett, R[ichard] Chiswell, M. Wotton, G. Conyers, published 1692, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The students gathered in the large school ____ for assembly.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The grand entrance ____ was lined with ancient suits of armor and massive portraits of the family's ancestors.