Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A doorway, entrance, or gate, especially one that is large and imposing.
- n. An entrance or a means of entrance: the local library, a portal of knowledge.
- n. The portal vein.
- n. A website considered as an entry point to other websites, often by being or providing access to a search engine.
- adj. Of or relating to the portal vein or the portal system.
- adj. Of or relating to a point of entrance to an organ, especially the transverse fissure of the liver, through which the blood vessels enter.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A door or gate; an entrance or opening for passage; specifically, the entire architectural treatment of the entrance and its surroundings of a great or splendid building, as a cathedral.
- n. A square corner of a room separated from the rest by a wainscot, and forming a short passage or vestibule.
- In anatomy: Pertaining to the hepatic porta, or great transverse fissure of the liver.
- Pertaining to the vena portæ, or portal vein.
- n. Same as portass.
Wiktionary
- n. A grandiose and often lavish entrance.
- n. An entrance, entry point, or means of entry.
- n. A website that acts as an entrance to other websites on the Internet.
- n. A short vein that carries blood into the liver.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A door or gate; hence, a way of entrance or exit, especially one that is grand and imposing.
- n. The lesser gate, where there are two of different dimensions.
- n. Formerly, a small square corner in a room separated from the rest of the apartment by wainscoting, forming a short passage to another apartment.
- n. By analogy with the French
portail , used by recent writers for the whole architectural composition which surrounds and includes the doorways and porches of a church. - n. The space, at one end, between opposite trusses when these are terminated by inclined braces.
- n. A prayer book or breviary; a portass.
- adj. Of or pertaining to a porta, especially the porta of the liver.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a site that the owner positions as an entrance to other sites on the internet
- n. a grand and imposing entrance (often extended metaphorically)
- n. a short vein that carries blood into the liver
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old French, from Medieval Latin portāle, city gate, from neuter of portālis, of a gate, from Latin porta, gate; see per-2 in Indo-European roots. N., sense 3 and adj., from New Latin porta (hepatis), transverse fissure (of the liver), literally gate of the liver, perhaps ultimately translation of Akkadian bāb (ekalli), gate (of the palace), umbilical fissure of the liver (next to the transverse fissure).
Examples
““I believe this portal is a positive step in that direction,” he said.”
Information and Support for Guardsmen and Families - SpouseBUZZ
“I was respon - sible for getting them away from CRTs, for getting into really interactive EEG programming -- what they call portal programming nowadays.”
True Names
“A platform which supports flexibility in regards to content manageability and its user friendly and user attracting display immensely increases what I call the portal sexiness factor.”
“A portal is a doorway, an entrance, an opening in which you are one side looking through to another.”
“The decrepit two-bedroom apartment behind this unassuming portal is an essential junction of what activists in Iraq and their U.S. supporters call the Underground Railroad.”
“The most news and entertainment portal from a Canadian perspective.”
“It might seem irrelevant, but it is a bit of a telltale that the website (what _should_ be the public's main portal for the latest NASA news) isn't priority. allen”
“Administration is easier than with previous versions, with a well-organized admin portal that allows easy access to all the features.”
IDG: Symantec: Top-of-the-line feature set for the largest enterprises
“The main portal for finding government statistics.”
“Oh, look, the portal is in her cousin's guest bathroom this time, how creative.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘portal’.
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 624 more...
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SAT words
tergiversate, cymotrichous, vigilance, wince, consternation, cower, neutralize, euphony, cacophony, misanthrope, bibliophile, kleptomania and 81 more...

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