Hall vs. Atrium — What's the Difference?

In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept.

An open-roofed entrance hall or central court in an ancient Roman house.

A corridor or passageway in a building.

Each of the two upper cavities of the heart from which blood is passed to the ventricles. The right atrium receives deoxygenated blood from the veins of the body, the left atrium oxygenated blood from the pulmonary vein.

A large entrance room or vestibule in a building; a lobby.

A usually skylit central area, often containing plants, in some modern buildings, especially of a public or commercial nature.

A building for public gatherings or entertainments.

The open area in the center of an ancient Roman house.

The large room in which such events are held.

The forecourt of a building, such as an early Christian church, enclosed on three or four sides with porticoes.

A building used for the gatherings and social activities of a church, fraternal order, or other organization.

(Anatomy) A body cavity or chamber, especially either of the upper chambers of the heart that receives blood from the veins and forces it into a ventricle. Also called auricle.

A building belonging to a school, college, or university that provides classroom, dormitory, or dining facilities.

(architecture) A central room or space in ancient Roman homes, open to the sky in the middle; a similar space in other buildings.

A large room in such a building.

(architecture) A square hall lit by daylight from above, into which rooms open at one or more levels.

The group of students using such a building

(anatomy) A cavity, entrance, or passage.

Chiefly British A meal served in such a building.

(biology) Any enclosed body cavity or chamber.

The main house on a landed estate.

(anatomy) An upper chamber of the heart that receives blood from the veins and forces it into a ventricle. In higher vertebrates, the right atrium receives blood from the superior vena cava and inferior vena cava, and the left atrium receives blood from the left and right pulmonary veins.

The castle or house of a medieval monarch or noble.

(anatomy) A microscopic air sac within a pulmonary alveolus.

The principal room in such a castle or house, used for dining, entertaining, and sleeping.

(palynology) A cavity inside a porate aperture of a pollen grain formed by the separation of the sexine and nexine layers, widening toward the interior of the grain.

A corridor; a hallway.

A square hall lighted from above, into which rooms open at one or more levels.

A meeting room.

The main part of either auricle of the heart as distinct from the auricular appendix. Also, the whole articular portion of the heart.

A manor house (originally because a magistrate's court was held in the hall of his mansion).

A cavity in ascidians into which the intestine and generative ducts open, and which also receives the water from the gills. See Ascidioidea.

A building providing student accommodation at a university.

A cavity, entrance, or passage; as, the atrium, or atrial cavity, in the body wall of the amphioxus; an atrium of the infundibula of the lungs, etc.

The principal room of a secular medieval building.

Any chamber that is connected to other chambers or passageways (especially one of the two upper chambers of the heart)

(obsolete) Cleared passageway through a crowd, as for dancing.

The central area in a building; open to the sky

A place for special professional education, or for conferring professional degrees or licences.

(India) A living room.

(Oxbridge) A college's canteen, which is often but not always coterminous with a traditional hall.

(Oxbridge slang) A meal served and eaten at a college's hall.

A building or room of considerable size and stateliness, used for public purposes; as, Westminster Hall, in London.

The chief room in a castle or manor house, and in early times the only public room, serving as the place of gathering for the lord's family with the retainers and servants, also for cooking and eating. It was often contrasted with the bower, which was the private or sleeping apartment.

A vestibule, entrance room, etc., in the more elaborated buildings of later times.

A name given to many manor houses because the magistrate's court was held in the hall of his mansion; a chief mansion house.

A college in an English university (at Oxford, an unendowed college).

The apartment in which English university students dine in common; hence, the dinner itself; as, hall is at six o'clock.

Cleared passageway in a crowd; - formerly an exclamation.

An interior passage or corridor onto which rooms open;

A large entrance or reception room or area

A large room for gatherings or entertainment;

A college or university building containing living quarters for students

The large room of a manor or castle

English writer whose novel about a lesbian relationship was banned in Britain for many years (1883-1943)

United States child psychologist whose theories of child psychology strongly influenced educational psychology (1844-1924)

United States chemist who developed an economical method of producing aluminum from bauxite (1863-1914)

United States explorer who led three expeditions to the Arctic (1821-1871)

United States astronomer who discovered Phobos and Deimos (the two satellites of Mars) (1829-1907)

A large and imposing house

A large building used by a college or university for teaching or research;

A large building for meetings or entertainment