mantelpiece

UK/ˈmæntlpiːs/US/ˈmæntlpiːs/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,597 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: mantelpieces

A mantelpiece is the shelf above a fireplace where photos and clocks stand. On the mantelpiece, dust the mantelpiece, a marble mantelpiece.

It began as a hood to catch smoke and became a shelf and then a display. It is spelled mantel with an e, not mantle, and the two words are constantly confused: a mantle is a cloak, or the layer of the Earth below the crust.

Definitions of mantelpiece

1nounmantelpieceThe shelf above a fireplace where photos and clocks stand.B2+
“He lit the fire and stood the birthday cards along the mantelpiece.”

mantelpiece is a shelf.

Also accepted in games: mantel

Where it comes from

Mantel plus piece. Mantel and mantle are the same word, from Latin mantellum, a cloak.

From mantel + piece.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Around the House

Practise this word

mantelpiece in the wild

Above the mantelpiece in this room Jonson inserted a marble slab engraved with his Leges Conviviales, or 'Rules of Conviviality'.
Sons of Ben (literary group)
One of the rooms on the first floor contains a beautiful carved wooden mantelpiece together with wall panelling.
2 King's Bench Walk
The series follows Microscopic Milton, a tiny man who lives in a clock on the mantelpiece in a house owned by Mrs.
Microscopic Milton
The Johnson-Neel House is also attributed to Stirewalt, due in part to its having a similar mantelpiece (and is also NRHP-listed).
Mill Hill (Concord, North Carolina)
Some of the room's most prominent aspects include a carved oak mantelpiece and walnut wall panelling.
Rotherwas Room

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.

← Vocabulary