Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A flat open stretch of pavement or grass, especially one designed as a promenade along a shore.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In fort.; The glacis of the counterscarp, or the sloping of the parapet of the covered way toward the country.
- n. The open space between the glacis of a citadel and the first houses of the town.
- n. Any open level space or course near a town, especially a kind of terrace along the seaside, for public walks or drives.
Wiktionary
- n. A clear space between a citadel and the nearest houses of the town.
- n. The glacis of the counterscarp, or the slope of the parapet of the covered way toward the country.
- n. A grass plat; a lawn.
- n. Any clear, level space used for public walks or drives; esp., a terrace by the seaside.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A clear space between a citadel and the nearest houses of the town.
- n. The glacis of the counterscarp, or the slope of the parapet of the covered way toward the country.
- n. (Hort.) A grass plat; a lawn.
- n. Any clear, level space used for public walks or drives; esp., a terrace by the seaside.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a long stretch of open level ground (paved or grassy) for walking beside the seashore
Etymologies
- 1590s, from French esplanade ("clear, level space"), from Spanish esplanada (explanada), form of esplanar ("to flatten, to make level"), from Latin explānāre, from which English explain; see also plain ("level area, to flatten"), and Italian spianata, from spianare. (Wiktionary)
- French, from Italian spianata, from spianare, to level, from Latin explānāre, to make plain; see explain. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The town-head fronted the upper bay, and between it and the grinding ice on the shore lay a broad tract of what might be called esplanade, presenting ample space for our encounter.”
John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn
“In front of the esplanade is the splendid pile commenced by Charles V, intended, it is said, to eclipse the residence of the Moslem kings.”
“Ellen Barfoot in her bath-chair on the esplanade was a prisoner -- civilization's prisoner -- all the bars of her cage falling across the esplanade on sunny days when the town hall, the drapery stores, the swimming-bath, and the memorial hall striped the ground with shadow.”
“This declivity runs between detached villas and stone walls, sheltering prim gardens, right on to the west end of the esplanade, which is, in fact, a continuation of it.”
“The esplanade was a broad walk extending the entire width of the building, and conforming to it.”
“Before I had gained her house I met her, as I supposed, coming toward me across the down, greeting me from afar with the familiar twinkle of her great vitreous badge; and as it was late in the autumn and the esplanade was a blank I was free to acknowledge this signal by cutting a caper on the grass.”
“The wall of the esplanade was a continued series of pointed arches, with a handsome frieze above it.”
“It is built on an immense esplanade, which is mounted by three flights of stairs, each in the form of the three sides of a pyramid, and each leading to an immense pointed arch, the entrances to the buildings.”
“We then walked up the High Street, or esplanade, which is open to the river except where the shore is cumbered with boats, hides, lumber, and beach-negroes.”
To the Gold Coast for Gold A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Volume I
“The best point of view is, I think, from the esplanade, which is distant some five minutes 'walk from the hotels.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘esplanade’.
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Mirrored Vowels
Rules:
• The word must have an even number of vowels.
• There must be four or more vowels; thus, at minimum, an A-A-A-A or A-B-B-A pattern.
• The vowels must appear in a mir...feminine, solicitor, caruncular, repackager, semiprimes, fetishises, decomposer, demonlover, recomposer, sepultures, lipotropic, colesterol and 385 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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FUN - bogus definitions
Find the words (left) for the definitions below
- the person upon whom one coughs at
- appalled over how much weight you have gained
- to give up all hope of ever having a flat st...coffee, flabbergasted, abdicate, esplanade, willy-nilly, negligent, lymph, gargoyle, flatulance, testicle, rectitude, Pokemon and 4 more...
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A Refined Lexicon
ambivalence, ambivalent, equivocal, equivocation, equivocate, prevaricate, prevarication, quietude, quiescent, quiescence, vanquish, pluviosity and 137 more...
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generationnext's Words
petulant, vehement, pensive, lascivious, vacillate, histrionic, satiated, svelte, lithe, zeitgeist, viscous, sommelier and 526 more...
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sep332's list
words I can't remember
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inkhorn's Words
inkhorn, aplomb, apotheosis, asinine, avatar, bombastic, boorish, bromide, bucolic, cagey, canvass, digress and 991 more...
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thekatespanos's list
pomposity, gaggle, scintilla, lemming, bilk, vanquish, conflate, plenary, verisimilitude, perspicacious, rattletrap, obdurate and 325 more...
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Chained Bear's Favorite Words
peruvian, sparky, poop, etymological, fuck, whatnot, pulchritude, nosh, tetched, quotidian, squalid, trajectory and 388 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Words gathered while reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.
refectory, soutane, ha-ha, jewelly, girt, centenary, collywobbles, coadjutor, catafalque, beeftea, pierhead, bedad and 235 more...
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Rilakkuma's list
The Velvetine Ruffians
gamine, waif, ruffian, villain, rake, libertine, velvetine, luminary, nom de plume, street urchin, epicurean, eventide and 256 more...
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cloudjuice's Words
schadenfreude, sordid, promulgate, erratic, erroneous, amalgamate, sesquipedalian, incongruous, psychosis, etymology, simulacrum, serendipity and 988 more...
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mandarine's Words
antepenultimate, metonymy, synecdoche, pop, kern, inherit, clique, scrumptious, macerate, murmur, kerning, veranda and 1068 more...
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Alaric's Words
chelation, bradykinetic, twelfth, dank, kulak, oneiric, cathexis, yonder, quern, lissome, naiad, krakatoan and 124 more...
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My Words
heuristic, malapropism, vicissitude, discursive, interstitial, velleity, phosphene, pandiculate, obdormition, vertiginous, flibbertigibbet, truculent and 128 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for esplanade.
oroboros To attempt an explanation while drunk. --Mensa word list winner 2006 Mar 2, 2007