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Glite Dictionary
🚶 Able to walk 🏛️ A walkway
ambulatory

ambulatory

1 9.3
A covered walkway inside a church or monastery
  • noun
  • /ˈæmbjʊlətɔri/
  • Specialized
translation icon : ambulacro
  • He walked along the black and red marble of the ambulatory to the front of the church and took a seat facing the opposite side.

Examples

  • Right, sorry, I should have taken into account the difficulty in attracting and maintaining an ambulatory.

    Blog text (3)

  • Two internal palaestrae are surrounded on three sides by huge, U-shaped cross-vaulted ambulatories.

    Academic text (2011)

  • He strolled through the ambulatory, admiring the intricate carvings on the walls.

  • The ambulatory offered a peaceful place for reflection and meditation away from the main altar.

  • Visitors can enjoy the beautiful stained glass windows while walking along the ambulatory of the cathedral.

Synonyms

ambulator
vsambulatory
  • Archaic
9.9

A covered walkway that curves around the end of a church

is the general architectural term for a covered passageway around an apse or cloister

Compounds

ambulatory plague
  • Archaic
8.9

A mild form of plague in which a person can still walk

How Covered

cloister
3 8.6
ambulatory
  • Specialized
1 9.3
alley
349 1.0
walkway
51 2.0
path
969 1.0

Surface Forms

ambulatory singular
ambulatories plural

Morphology

ambulatory = amble (semi-transparent) = ambul + ory

The connection to 'amble' is clear, but the architectural meaning is specialized and not immediately obvious.

Etymology

Ambulatory comes from the Latin verb ambulare meaning 'to walk', and it shares the same root as the simple English word amble; in churches an ambulatory is a covered passage where people could walk around the altar.