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Architecture vocabulary · Styles, History and Conservation

Classical orders

Meaning in architecture, with examples

nounCommon term

In architecture, classical orders means: The systems of column design and proportion from ancient Greece and Rome: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, plus the Roman Tuscan and Composite orders.

In Turkish: klasik düzenler, klasik sütun düzenleri, nizamlar

How it is used

Basic vocabulary in architectural history. Each order has its own column, capital and entablature, and you can recognise them by the capital: plain (Doric), with scrolls or volutes (Ionic), or with acanthus leaves (Corinthian). Renaissance and Neoclassical architects reused them.

Example sentences

  1. The facade combines two classical orders: Doric below and Ionic above.

  2. Can you tell which of the classical orders this capital belongs to?

Common collocations

  • Doric order
  • Ionic order
  • Corinthian order
  • orders of architecture
  • columnA vertical structural member, usually of concrete, steel or timber, that carries loads from beams and slabs down to the foundations.
  • proportionThe relationship in size between the parts of a building, and between each part and the whole, such as the height and width of a window or a room.
  • GothicDescribing the European style of roughly the 12th to the 16th century, with pointed arches, ribbed vaults, flying buttresses and large stained-glass windows.
  • domeA rounded roof shaped like half a sphere, built over a circular, square or polygonal space; a masonry dome spreads its weight outwards and downwards.

More terms: Styles, History and Conservation

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