Mansion

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈmæn(t)ʃən/

Alternative forms

• mansioun obsolete

Origin

Anglo-Norman, from Latin mansiō ("dwelling, stopping-place"), from the past participle stem of manēre ("stay").

Full definition of mansion

Noun

1. (large house or building) A large house or building, usually built for the wealthy.
2. (UK) A luxurious flat (apartment).
3. (obsolete) A house provided for a clergyman; a manse.
4. (obsolete) A stopping-place during a journey; a stage.
5. (historical) An astrological house; a station of the moon.
• Late 14th century: Which book spak muchel of the operaciouns
  Touchynge the eighte and twenty mansiouns
  That longen to the moone — Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Franklin's Tale’, Canterbury Tales
6. (Chinese astronomy) One of twenty-eight sections of the sky.
7. (chiefly in the plural) An individual habitation or apartment within a large house or group of buildings. (Now chiefly in allusion to John 14:2.)
• 1611, Bible, Authorized (King James) Version, John XIV.2:In my Father's house are many mansions : if it were not so, I would have told you.
• DenhamThese poets near our princes sleep,
  And in one grave their mansions keep.
• 2003, The Economist, (subtitle), 18 Dec 2003:The many mansions in one east London house of God.
8. Any of the branches of the Rastafari movement.

Derived terms

• mansion house
• mansion place
• mansionette
• mansionry

Related terms

• manor
• manse

Descendants

• Japanese: マンション borrowed

Anagrams

• amnions, Minoans, onanism