spandrel.

1. The roughly triangular space between an arch’s outer curve and the surrounding rectangular framework or an adjoining arch.

2. A wall or panel area between vertically stacked windows or openings on a building’s exterior.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• decorated spandrel
• arch spandrels
• carved spandrel

On the page

Carved leaves filled the spandrel beside the arch.

A small shield occupied each spandrel above the arcade.

The spandrel remained bare after the relief was removed.

Usage notes

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