postern.

A secondary, smaller or private gate or door, especially in a fortification.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• postern gate
• narrow postern

On the page

The porter opened the postern rather than the ceremonial gate.

A narrow postern connected the enclosed yard to the outer path.

Usage notes

Primary category: architecture / spatial description. Forms: Singular postern; plural posterns. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: precise built-space description, structural component naming, spatial orientation, interior material description. Disciplines: fiction writing, architectural description, advanced descriptive English. Commonness: uncommon.