clerestory Hear it!

clerestory Definition

clere·story (klirstôr′ē)

noun pl. -·ries

the upper part of a wall, specif. of a church, containing windows for lighting the central part of a lofty room or space

Etymology: ME clerestorie < cler, clear + storie, story

clerestory Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • have: All is vaulted in stone and the nave is tall enough to have had a clerestory, but there is blank wall here instead.
  • form: In the fifteenth century the walls of the nave were raised to form a clerestory and the nave covered with a new low-pitched roof.
  • raise: Even more unusual, the stubby tower hugs a later raised clerestory, quite out of keeping with each other.
  • show: They show the clerestory ( above ) and aisle elevations in Bay 4. The different colors indicate the different stone types represented.

Adjective modifier

  • pretty: The first impression is of the great swathe of 14th century aisle, with a pretty clerestory peeping above it.
  • 15th: The wealth of those days built the church, particularly the fine 15th century clerestory and aisles.
  • tall: The church is a large building comprising a five bay nave with aisles, a tall polygonal apse, and an exceptionally tall clerestory.
  • perpendicular: Above them towers the Perpendicular clerestory, its windows picked out in brick.
  • north: The church is perpendicular, the windows mostly modern and poor, and those of the north clerestory have carpenters ' frames.
  • late: The twelfth-century arcade and triforium support a later clerestory and great hammer-beam roof dating from the fifteenth century.

Modifies a noun

  • window: A few last rays of light still struck through the clerestory windows, resting upon capitals with stiff foliage.
  • roof: It has not been possible to determine exactly why the decision to build stock with clerestory roofs was made.
  • body: These are D & S etched brass NER clerestory body kits which were specially etched for him some years ago.
  • level: One gargoyle at the west end and between the first and second bays a stair turret continues above the clerestory level.
  • carriage: It was a one off replacement for an earlier clerestory carriage.
  • coach: The Railroad Hotel survives and even contains a section of ( standard gage ) GWR clerestory coach.

Preposition: above

arcade: As tho transported from a French cathedral, light fills the clerestory above the north transept arcade.

Noun used with modifier

  • century: The wealth of those days built the church, particularly the fine 15th century clerestory and aisles.
  • nave: Angels heads were painted in spandrels above the nave clerestory windows.
  • glass: None of the weight goes to the walls, as can be seen from the glass clerestory.

Browse dictionary entries near clerestory

  1. cleptomania
  2. clepsydra
  3. clepe
  4. CLEP
  5. Cleopatra's Needle
  6. Cleopatra
  7. Cleon
  8. Cleomenes III
  9. cleome
  10. clench
  1. clergy
  2. clergyman
  3. clergyperson
  4. clergywoman
  5. cleric
  6. clerical
  7. clerical collar
  8. clericalism
  9. clerihew
  10. clerisy