Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A circular building, especially one with a dome.
  • noun A large area with a high ceiling, as in a hotel lobby.
  • noun A large round room.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A round building, especially one with a dome; any building that is round both outside and inside. The most celebrated edifice of this kind is the Pantheon at Rome. See cuts under octastyle and pantheon.
  • noun A circular hall in a large building, generally surmounted by a dome: as, the rotunda of the Capitol in Washington.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Arch.) A round building; especially, one that is round both on the outside and inside, like the Pantheon at Rome. Less properly, but very commonly, used for a large round room.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a round building, usually small, often with a dome

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a large circular room
  • noun a building having a circular plan and a dome

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Italian rotonda, from feminine of rotondo, round, from Latin rotundus; see rotund.]

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