porch

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

• noun A covered platform, usually having a separate roof, at an entrance to a building.
• noun An open or enclosed gallery or room attached to the outside of a building; a veranda.
• noun Obsolete A portico or covered walk.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In architecture, an exterior appendage to a building, forming a covered approach or vestibule to a doorway; a covered way or entrance, whether inclosed or uninclosed.
• noun A covered walk, or portico; a stoa.
• noun A veranda.
• noun Figuratively, the beginning or entrance.

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

• noun (Arch.) A covered and inclosed entrance to a building, whether taken from the interior, and forming a sort of vestibule within the main wall, or projecting without and with a separate roof. Sometimes the porch is large enough to serve as a covered walk. See also Carriage porch, under carriage, and loggia.
• noun obsolete A portico; a covered walk.
• noun a public portico, or great hall, in Athens, where Zeno, the philosopher, taught his disciples; hence, sometimes used as equivalent to the school of the Stoics. It was called "h poiki`lh stoa`. [See Poicile.]

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

• noun A covered and enclosed entrance to a building, whether taken from the interior, and forming a sort of vestibule within the main wall, or projecting without and with a separate roof.
• noun A portico; a covered walk.

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

• noun a structure attached to the exterior of a building often forming a covered entrance