fan vault.

A vault in which similarly curved ribs radiate like a fan from their springing points.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• stone fan vault

On the page

A fan vault opened above the passage.

The fan vault’s ribs spread from the columns in even curves.

Usage notes

Primary category: architecture. Forms: Singular fan vault; plural fan vaults. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.