porch.
1. Covered place of entrance and exit attached to a building and projecting in front of its main mass, such as the south porch of a medieval church, often with a room over it.

2. Interior volume serving as a vestibule.

3. Transept or side-chapel in a church.

4. Cloister, colonnade, Galilee, narthex, portico, stoa, or verandah (all with columns). A columned porch or portico usually has a pediment and resembles a temple-front.

porch / pôrch/ • n. a covered shelter projecting in front of the entrance of a building. ∎  a veranda.DERIVATIVES: porched adj.porch·less adj.ORIGIN: Middle English: from Old French porche, from Latin porticus ‘colonnade,’ from porta ‘passage.’

porch covered approach to a building XIII; the P., allusively with ref. to the Stoic school XVII. — (O)F. porche :— L. porticus colonnade, gallery, porch (cf. STOIC), f. porta ‘passage’, PORT2.