Monastery

A building or buildings appropriated to the reception of monks.

Monopteron

A circular colonnade supporting a dome without an enclosing wall.

Mosaic

A mode of representing objects by the inlaying of small cubes of glass, stone, marble, shells, etc.

Mosque

A Mohammedan temple or place of worship.

Mullions

The upright posts or bars which divide the lights in a Gothic window.

Muniment-house

A strong, fire-proof apartment for the keeping and preservation of evidences, charters, seals, etc., called muniments.

Museum

A repository of natural, scientific, and literary curiosities or of works of art.

Mutule

A projecting ornament of the Doric cornice supposed to represent the ends of rafters.

Nave

The main body of a Gothic church. Newel. - A post at the starting or landing of a flight of stairs. Niche. - A cavity or hollow place in a wall for the reception of a statue, vase, etc.

Nogs

Wooden bricks.

Nosing

The rounded and projecting edge of a step in stairs.

Nunnery

A building or buildings appropriated for the reception of nuns.

Obelisk

A lofty pillar of a rectangular form.

Octastyle

A building with eight columns in front.

Odeum

Among the Greeks, a species of theatre wherein the poets and musicians rehearsed their compositions previous to the public production of them.

Ogee

See cyma.

Orangery

A gallery or building in a garden or parterre fronting the south.

Oriel-window

A large bay or recessed window in a hall, chapel, or other apartment.

Ovolo

A convex projecting moulding whose profile is the quadrant of a circle.

Pagoda

A temple or place of worship in India.

Palisade

A fence of pales or stakes driven into the ground.

Parapet

A small wall of any material for protection on the sides of bridges, quays, or high buildings.

Pavilion

A turret or small building generally insulated and comprised under a single roof.

Pedestal

A square foundation used to elevate and sustain a column, statue, etc.

Pediment

The triangular crowning part of a portico or aperture which terminates vertically the sloping parts of the roof; this, in Gothic architecture, is called a gable.

Penitentiary

A prison for the confinement of criminals whose crimes are not of a very heinous nature.

Piazza

A square, open space surrounded by buildings. This term is often improperly used to denote a portico.

Pier

A rectangular pillar without any regular base or capital. The upright, narrow portions of walls between doors and windows are known by this term.

Pilaster

A square pillar, sometimes insulated, but more commonly engaged in a wall, and projecting only a part of its thickness.

Piles

Large timbers driven into the ground to make a secure foundation in marshy places, or in the bed of a river.

Pillat

A column of irregular form, always disengaged, and always deviating from the proportions of the orders; whence the distinction between a pillar and a column.

Pinnacle

A small spire used to ornament Gothic buildings.

Planceer

The same as soffit, which see.

Plinth

The lower square member of the base of a column, pedestal, or wall.

Porch

An exterior appendage to a building, forming a covered approach to one of its principal doorways.

Portal

The arch over a door or gate; the framework of the gate; the lesser gate, when there are two of different dimensions at one entrance.

Portcullis

A strong timber gate to old castles, made to slide up and down vertically.

Portico

A colonnade supporting a shelter over a walk, or ambulatory.

Priory

A building similar in its constitution to a monastery or abbey, the head whereof was called a prior or prioress.

Prism

A solid bounded on the sides by parallelograms, and on the ends by polygonal figures in parallel planes.

Prostyle

A building with columns in front only.

Purlines

Those pieces of limber which lie under and at right angles to the rafters to prevent them from sinking.

Pycnostyle

An intercolumniation of one and a half diameters.

Pyramid

A solid body standing on a square, triangle, or potygonal basis and terminating in a point at the top.

Quarry

A place whence stones and slates are procured. Quay. - (Pronounced key.) A bank formed towards the sea or on the side of a river for free passage, or for the purpose of unloading merchandise. Quoin. - An external angle. See Rustic quoins.

Rabbet, or Rebate

A groove or channel in the edge of a board.

Ramp

A concave bend in the back of a hand-rail.

Rampant arch

One having abutments of different heights. .

Regula

The band below the taenia in the Doric order.

Riser

In stairs, the vertical board forming the front of a step.

Rostrum

An elevated platform from which a speaker addresses an audience.

Rotunda

A circular building.

Rubble-wall

A wall built of unhewn stone.

Rudenture

The same as cable, which see.

Rustic quoins

The stones placed on the external angle of a building, projecting beyond the face of the wall, and having their edges bevelled.

Rustic-work

A mode of building masonry wherein the faces of the stones are left rough, the sides only being wrought smooth where the union of the stones takes place.

Salon, or Saloon

A lofty and spacious apartment comprehending the height of two stories with two tiers of windows.

Sarcophagus

A tomb or coffin made of one stone.

Scantling