Make Your Point > Archived Issues > ANTEROOM

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pronounce ANTEROOM: Say it "AN tee room." To hear it, click here. connect this word to others: Today we're checking out the lovely, precise word anteroom. It's the third pearl on our necklace of ante- words. (Words starting with ante- involve the idea of "before, previous, or in front of.") The first and second pearls were antebellum and antediluvian: could you define them? definition: Literally a "before-room," an anteroom is a room you enter first, before you enter the main area of a building. It's also sometimes called an antechamber. If you're talking figuratively, you can use "anteroom" to mean "a time, a place, or a situation that reminds you of a room you enter first." Why do anterooms exist? Lots of reasons! In hospitals, they keep out dirty air. In homes, they're a good place to store shoes and coats. In indoor rides at theme parks, anterooms can entertain you before you get on the ride. And in schools and other protected places, anterooms can help the staff screen visitors before allowing them in. Here's a worker adding an anteroom to a middle school: grammatical bits: Part of speech: Noun, the countable kind: "Shoppers push their way through the anteroom." Other forms:  Sometimes you'll see it with a hyphen: "ante-room." And the plural is "anterooms." how to use it: "Anteroom" helps us get extra-precise. Although its meaning is straightforward, it can suggest undertones of hiding, waiting, secrecy, power, control, and opulence. To use "anteroom" literally, you might talk about anterooms to, of, or off certain other rooms, especially in formal buildings: banks, theaters, mansions, courtrooms, legislative buildings, etc. And to use it figuratively, you might talk about a certain phase, situation, point in time, or stretch of time being an anteroom to, of, or off something else. If you're in the anteroom, you're further along than the person who's got his foot in the door--but not by much. examples: "She...felt herself a prisoner in the anteroom of hell."    — Isabel Allende, The House of the Spirits, 1982 "Marc Freedman... is on a mission to reintegrate older people into the lives of younger ones. 'Much of that whole conception [of age segregation] was invented... out of a real feeling that older people were superfluous. And it was invented so recently, within the last half a century or so: the idea being that people are kind of drifting through this anteroom to the great beyond.'"    — Maya Salam, quoting Marc Freedman, New York Times, 4 December 2018 has this page helped you understand "anteroom"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study it: Explain the meaning of "anteroom" without saying "antechamber" or "foyer." try it out: Fill in the blanks: "For (a certain period of time), I lingered in the anteroom of (some hobby, career, or relationship)." Example: "Interning, or student teaching, was a strange time. For an anxiety-riddled semester, we lingered in the anteroom of our teaching careers, getting used to being called 'Miss' and wondering if we were really allowed to park in the teacher lot." If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.) before you review, play: Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out. Our game this month is "Polygon of Predestination!" With a high five to TheWordFinder.com for its puzzle generator, I'm Pat-Sajacking that spin-the-wheel game from TV. Apply your alliterative acumen to solve the puzzle. The category all month long is: "Beastly Blunders and Criminal Capers." From the previous issue: When I think of double dipping--sometimes hyphenated, "double-dipping"--I think first of that fondue-party fon-don't, where you dip the same morsel twice into the cheese, giving everyone else your germs. But it's interesting to note that the original double dip was simply an ice cream treat: "He sprinkles orange and red and chocolate flakes of candy on top of the double-dips; this costs a nickel" (1965). That kind of double-dipping gave rise to a figurative kind, where you collect a pension from your first job along with a paycheck from another job, essentially taking a dirty second dip into your employer's pockets: "Congressional hearings called to investigate this 'double dipping' (1975)." A bit worse than taking a second swipe of cheese, right? Try this one today: Not sure yet? Need to see a bit more? Click here. review this word: 1. Close opposites of ANTEROOM include A. DEBUT and OPENING NIGHT. B. INNER SANCTUM and EXIT CHAMBER. C. CONFINEMENT and CIRCUMSCRIPTION. 2. If the zombies breach the anteroom, _____. A. it's been nice knowing you guys B. remember to aim for their brains C. let's fortify the main doors again Answers to review questions: 1. B 2. C a final word: I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.