rotunda
nounUK /ɹə(ʊ)ˈtʌndə/ · US /ɹoʊˈtʌndə/
Etymology Learned borrowing from Latin rotunda, from rotundus (“round”). In the architectural sense, from Sancta Maria Rotunda (the name for a church in the Pantheon).
1
Architecture A round building, usually small, often with a dome.
- The rotunda begun but never completed by Abbot Wulfric (1047–59) at St Augustine’s Abbey as a link between the church of St Mary and that of St Peter and St Paul is an unusual and ambitious example of mid-eleventh-century English architecture which partly survives (fig. 4.6, top). […] Many of these rotundae are known to have had a special funerary function (as was the case at Canterbury).1976, Bridget Cherry, “Ecclesiastical architecture”, in David M[ackenzie] Wilson, editor, The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England, London: Methuen & Co Ltd, →ISBN, pages 188–189:
- The purely Greek character of the temple is revealed in the fact that there is no portico aligning the structure; Roman tholoi and rotundae are usually distinguished by a portico.1998, “Antiquity”, in Bruce Almberg, Charles Earle, Michael Robinson, Katja Steiner, transl., edited by Stefan Grundmann, The Architecture of Rome: An Architectural History in 400 Individual Presentations, Stuttgart; London: Edition Axel Menges, →ISBN, page 29, column 2:
1 more example
- Access to the shafts is gained via a brick entrance rotunda below a glass dome. The walls of these rotundae are built over the outer edge of caissons which hold the shafts; […]2014 December, Mary Mills, “Foot Tunnels beneath the River Thames”, in Nick Catford, editor, Subterranea, number 37, Ascot, Berkshire: Subterranea Britannica, →ISSN, page 66, column 2:
2
Media, Publishing, Typography A Gothic typeface used in early printed books in Northern Italy, based on a rounded script developed in the 13th cent.; the manuscript hand on which this typeface was based.
Frequently capitalized
3
Philippines, Alternative Alternative spelling of rotonda.
- TPLEX Rotunda is a roundabout located in Rosario, La Union.
4
Geometry, Mathematics, Sciences A form of cupola that has pentagons rather than squares or rectangles.
- Derived terms
- band rotunda, birotunda
- Related terms
- fenestra rotunda, r rotunda