door

Reading level: easy

Estimated CEFR level: A1 — Beginner

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a swinging or sliding barrier that will close the entrance to a room or building or vehicle
  2. noun the entrance (the space in a wall) through which you enter or leave a room or building; the space that a door can close
  3. noun anything providing a means of access (or escape)

Etymology

From Middle English dore, dor, from Old English duru (“door”), dor (“gate”), from Proto-West Germanic *dur, from Proto-Germanic *durz, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwṓr, from *dʰwer- (“doorway, door, gate”). Cognates Cognate with Scots door (“door”), Saterland Frisian Doore (“door”), West Frisian doar (“door”), Dutch deur (“door”), German Low German Door, Döör (“door”), German Tür (“door”), Tor (“gate”), Danish, Norn, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk dør (“door”), Swedish dörr (“door”), Faroese and Icelandic dyr (“door”), Asturian, Aragonese and Spanish fuera (“outside”), Catalan, Leonese, and Portuguese fora (“outside”), French hors (“outside”), Galician fóra (“outside”), Italian fuori (“outside”), Mirandese fuora (“outside”), Latin foris and foras (“outside”), Ancient Greek θύρα (thúra), Albanian derë (“door”), Central Kurdish دەرگە (derge, “door”), Northern Kurdish derî (“door”), Persian در (dar, “door”), Belarusian дзве́ры (dzvjéry, “door”), Bulgarian две́ри (dvéri, “royal doors”), Czech dveře (“door”), Latvian durvis (“door”), Lithuanian durys (“door”), Macedonian двер (dver, “door”), Polish drzwi (“door”), Russian дверь (dverʹ), Serbo-Croatian dvȇri (“door”), dvar (“door”), Ukrainian две́рі (dvéri, “door”), Hindi द्वार (dvār, “door”), Armenian դուռ (duṙ, “door”), Irish doras (“door”), Sanskrit द्वार (dvāra, “door”). Despite similarities in spelling, not cognate with Dutch door, which is instead cognate with English through.

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