narthex.

An entrance hall or enclosed porch at the end of a church leading into the nave.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• church narthex
• outer narthex
• enter through the narthex

On the page

They waited in the narthex until the service ended.

The narthex held a rack of candles and a wooden noticeboard.

From the narthex, the nave looked unexpectedly bright.

Usage notes

Primary category: architecture. Forms: Singular narthex; plural narthexes; narthices is a learned variant. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.