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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

door.

A portal of entry into a building, room, or vehicle, typically consisting of a rigid plane movable on a hinge. It may have a handle to help open and close, a latch to hold it closed, and a lock that ensures it cannot be opened without a key.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/do(ː)ɹ//doə//ɖoɾ//doʊ/
  1. A portal of entry into a building, room, or vehicle, typically consisting of a rigid plane movable on a hinge. It may have a handle to help open and close, a latch to hold it closed, and a lock that ensures it cannot be opened without a key.

    bathroom door, bedroom door, doorkey, exterior door, interior door
    I knocked on the vice president's door.
  2. A building with a door, especially a house.

    in-plural · metonymically
    His house is three doors down.
    He went five doors up the road to the bank.
  3. Any flap, etc., that opens like a door.

    cupboard door
    the 24 doors in an Advent calendar
  4. An entry point.

  5. A means of approach or access.

    figuratively
    Learning is the door to wisdom.
  6. A possibility.

    figuratively
    to leave the door open
    all doors are open to somebody
  7. A barrier.

    figuratively
    Keep a door on your anger.
  8. A software mechanism by which a user can interact with a program running remotely on a bulletin board system. See BBS door.

    dated
  9. The proceeds from entrance fees and/or ticket sales at a venue such as a bar or nightclub, especially in relation to portion paid to the entertainers.

    The bar owner gives each band a percentage of the door and charges customers more to get in.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰwer-der. Proto-Germanic *durz Proto-West Germanic *dur Old English duru Middle English dore English door 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.

verb/do(ː)ɹ//doə//ɖoɾ//doʊ/
  1. To cause a collision by opening the door of a vehicle in front of an oncoming cyclist or pedestrian.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰwer-der. Proto-Germanic *durz Proto-West Germanic *dur Old English duru Middle English dore English door 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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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.