What does "peristyle" mean?

A colonnade surrounding a courtyard, temple, etc., or the yard enclosed by such columns.

What is a synonym for "peristyle"?

Common synonyms include: arcade, atlas, cloister, colonnade, column, corridor.

Pronounced //ˈpɛɹəstaɪl//.

//ˈpɛɹəstaɪl// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A colonnade surrounding a courtyard, temple, etc., or the yard enclosed by such columns.
"One cannot, for example, see the Temple of Æsculapius as one stands in the fine open courtyard as it was intended one should do; the interstices on that side of the peristyle have been blocked by Venetian Gothic buildings."
2
a colonnade surrounding a building or enclosing a court wordnet
3
A porch surrounded by columns.
4
A sacred roofed courtyard with a central pillar (the potomitan), used as a space for voodoo ceremonies, either alone or as an adjunct to an enclosed temple or altar-room.
"The peristyle is a roofed structure, open at the sides, in which most of the ceremonials and dances take place."

"The house features an atrium with a rectangular peristyle and a covered corridor, the roof of which is supported by columns with Doric capitals."

From French péristyle, from Classical Latin peristȳlum, from περίστυλον (perístulon), from περι- (peri-, “around”) + στῦλος (stûlos, “pillar”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.