doorway

Etymology

It is a compound from English door + way, the passage of a door.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The opening that a door closes, the entrance into a building or room: Merriam-Webster dates its first known use to 1666,^[5][6] Etymonline to 1738,^[2] Dictionary.com to 1790–1800,^[3] and the OED's first quotation is from Southey's English Eclogues (1799).^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its literal sense, the opening or passage that a door closes and the space in a wall that the door and its frame take up.^[4][5] It is also used figuratively for a means of reaching some desirable state, or of escape from a bad one: a doorway to freedom.^[8][5] Dictionaries differ on whether a doorway must have a door: Grammarphobia notes that most define it as an opening with a door, while the American Heritage Dictionary does not mention one.^[9][10]

Timeline

• 1666 – first known use, of the opening that a door closes.^[5][6]
• 1738 – the passage of a door, an entrance into a room or building.^[2]
• 1799 – first quotation in the OED, in Southey.^[4][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The opening in a wall that a door closes; an entrance into a building or room: The cat sat waiting in the kitchen doorway.^[8][5][4]
2. A means of access to something desirable, or of escape: Night classes became her doorway to a new career.^[8][5]

Related words

• door
• way
• gateway
• entryway

Usage notes

Some dictionaries define a doorway as the opening that a door closes, while others, such as the American Heritage Dictionary, describe it simply as an entranceway.^[10][6] Grammarphobia sees nothing wrong with calling a door-less opening between rooms a doorway in casual use, but suggests a word like entry in formal English.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b O'Conner, Patricia T.; Kellerman, Stewart, The Grammarphobia Blog, grammarphobia.com, p. "Does a doorway need a door?", 9 January 2017
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin