grotto

UK/ˈɡɹɒt.əʊ/US/ˈɡɹɑ.toʊ/

nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,675 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: grottoes, grottos

A grotto is a small picturesque cave. A sea grotto, an artificial grotto, Santa's grotto.

Eighteenth-century gardens had them built on purpose, lined with shells and coloured stone, as a place to be pleasantly gloomy in. Santa's grotto keeps the word alive in every December shopping centre. Grotto and crypt are the same word by different routes.

Definitions of grotto

1noungrottoA small picturesque cave.C1
“Behind the waterfall was a small grotto where the children liked to hide.”

grotto is a cave.

Where it comes from

Italian grotta comes through Vulgar Latin from Latin crypta, a vault. Crypt is its doublet.

Latin
crypta
Vulgar Latin
grupta
Italian
grotta
English, today
grotto

From Italian grotta, from Vulgar Latin grupta, from Classical Latin crypta. a doublet of crypt. The Philippine sense is from the holy cave in Lourdes, France.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Nature & Weather

Practise this word

grotto in the wild

The grotto is the oldest site continuously used as a place of worship in Christianity, and the basilica is the oldest major church in the Holy Land.
Church of the Nativity
A grotto or grot is a natural or artificial cave or covered recess.
Grotto
Naturally occurring grottoes are typically small coastal caves associated with bodies of water and may be partially or fully submerged at high tide.
Grotto
The grotto overlooks the East Sea and rests 750 meters above sea level.
Seokguram
The grotto was completed by the Silla court in 774, shortly after Kim's death.
Seokguram

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the crypta family

crypt grotto

grotto — used about once every 4,930 pages · #9,675 · point at the bar for the others

grotesque

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