Meaning of wall in English

wall

noun

/wɔːl/ us

/wɑːl/

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A1 [ C ]

a vertical structure, often made of stone or brick, that divides or surrounds something:

The walls in this apartment are so thin you can hear just about every word the neighbours say.

The walls look a bit bare - can't we put some pictures up?

We had to climb over a ten-foot wall to get into the garden.

The Berlin Wall came down in 1989.

thenakedsnail/Moment/GettyImages

[ C ]

any outer part of a hollow structure in the body:

the wall of the uterus/stomach

an artery wall

[ C ]

a mass of people or things formed in such a way that you cannot get through or past them:

The demonstrators formed a solid wall to stop the police from getting past them.

[ C ]

in football, a row of players who stand ten yards away from where a free kick is taken in order to make scoring directly from the free kick more difficult:

Rooney curved the free kick past the Newcastle defensive wall and inside the far post.

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[ S ] literary

a large, powerful, usually fast moving mass of something:

After the rains, the houses were washed away by a wall of mud/water.

[ S ]

a way of feeling or behaving that completely prevents two groups of people from communicating with or understanding each other:

There is a wall of mistrust between the two groups.

More examplesFewer examples

Books on every conceivable subject lined one wall.
The east wall of the mosque is covered with a beautiful mosaic.
The fall of the Berlin wall marked the end of an era.
The walls are constructed of concrete.
The paint on the outside walls has weathered badly.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Parts of buildings: walls & parts of walls

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Substances & structures in the body

Groups of people

Masses and large amounts of things

Difficult things and people

Idioms

drive someone up the wall
go to the wall
hit the wall
off the wall
walls have ears

(Definition of wall from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

wall | American Dictionary

wall

noun [ C ]

/wɔl/

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a vertical structure that divides or encloses something:

The walls of the fortress were more than eighteen inches thick.

We’d like the walls painted white.

A wall of people or things is a mass of them formed in such a way that you cannot get through or past them:

(Definition of wall from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

wall | Business English

wall

noun [ C ]

/wɔːl/ us

go to the wall UK informal

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if a business goes to the wall, it goes bankrupt:

After twelve months of big losses, the company went to the wall.

See also

Chinese wall
hit the wall
party wall

(Definition of wall from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of wall

wall

One should note the evident preoccupation with the lighting of the latter, which benefited from generous bay-windows cut into the side walls.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

A large arcade was added to both the north and south walls, to ensure adequate access.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

By this time the crowd following the marchers had spilled out across the roadway, effectively breaking the ban on a march within the city walls.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Hangings were henceforth carried out behind prison walls; the public spectacle which executions had provided came to an end.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The walls express the growing independence of the cities.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Against the east and west side walls at the lower end of the hall stood double-galleries, one platform deep and two platforms high.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The glass meets the walls directly, also giving the horizontal emphasis internally.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Minor concessions to location and climate were developed, the verandah, for example, keeping direct sunlight from falling on external walls.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The effects of these forces on water penetration through exterior building walls follow the basic laws of physics and are well documented.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Energy-efficient 4" structural insulated panel exterior walls, with foam sealant at all joints to cut air infiltration.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Passing through the doorway, concrete walls direct you back on yourself and into the main chapel space.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Important information and instructions are being inscribed on the walls.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In the other, the nature classroom, water and light are evident in the external teaching space, the living walls and a wet area.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Illumination at task level is secondary to the definition of the structural walls that define interior spaces.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In fact, exterior walls became interior ones as the museum collection expanded.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of wall

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with wall

wall

These are words often used in combination with wall.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

abdominal wall

The cardinal features are abdominal wall defects, macroglossia and gigantism.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

adobe wall

It was recovered from an old adobe wall three meters from the northern edge of the ziggurat.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

anterior wall

A longitudinal pulmonary arteriotomy was made on the anterior wall of the aneurysmally dilated right and left pulmonary arteries.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all collocations with wall

What is the pronunciation of wall?

Translations of wall

in Chinese (Traditional)

牆，牆壁，圍牆, （身體中中空結構的）壁, 人牆…

in Chinese (Simplified)

墙，墙壁，围墙, （身体中中空结构的）壁, 人墙…

in Spanish

muro, pared, barrera defensiva…

in Portuguese

muro, parede, barreira defensiva…

in more languages

in Marathi

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in Danish

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in German

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in Urdu

in Ukrainian

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in Bengali

in Czech

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in Italian

भिंत…

壁, 塀, 壁（かべ）…

duvar, etrafını duvarla çevirmek…

mur [masculine], mur(aille), mur…

paret, mur…

muur, ommuren…

ஒரு செங்குத்து அமைப்பு, பெரும்பாலும் கல் அல்லது செங்கலால் ஆனது, அது எதையாவது பிரிக்கிறது அல்லது சுற்றுகிறது…

दीवार…

દીવાલ, ભીંત…

mur, -mur, væg…

mur, vägg, omge med mur…

tembok, benteng, dinding…

die Mauer, die Wand, ummauern…

vegg [masculine], mur [masculine], mur…

دیوار…

стіна, обгороджувати стіною…

గోడ…

দেওয়াল…

zeď, stěna, obezdít…

tembok, dinding, menembok…

กำแพง, ผนัง, ฉาก…

bức tường, tường nhà, xây tường bao quanh…

ściana, mur, otoczyć murem…

벽, 담…

muro, parete, murare…

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Meaning of wall in English

Idioms

wall | American Dictionary

wall | Business English

Examples of wall

Collocations with wall

wall

Translations of wall

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