Door Definition: Examples, Interesting Idioms, and Quiz

Discover how this everyday word is used in different contexts to highlight certain details or provide specific information.

Learn more about the “door” synonyms to expand your vocabulary and talk about this item using different terms.

Related nouns: entrance doorway gate exit

Synonyms (contextual): entry access point

Common collocations: front door back door sliding door

You know how to spell “door” and what synonymous expressions are connected to it. Now take a look at how to combine “door” with other parts of speech to create simple and meaningful collocations.

With adjectives: locked door open door heavy door wooden door

With verbs: open a door close a door knock on the door lock the door

With nouns (noun + noun): door handle door frame doorbell door lock

This term is quite straightforward in terms of meaning, but we can find it in a broad selection of English phrases and idioms. Take a look at them and remember their explanation to use these sayings in appropriate situations.

• Close the door on something — to end an opportunity permanently; to make something impossible.

  By dropping out of school, he closed the door on a college education.

• Open doors — the meaning here is to create opportunities and make new possibilities available.

  Learning English will open doors to international career opportunities.

• Show someone the door — this phrase refers to asking someone to leave or to fire someone.

  After his rude behavior, the manager showed him the door.

• When one door closes, another opens — this saying means to stay hopeful after setbacks.

  I didn’t get that job, but when one door closes, another opens — I will find something better!

• Behind closed doors — it is all about doing something secretly, without others knowing.

  The negotiations happened behind closed doors, so nobody knows what was discussed.

Check how well you understand the “door” definition with this quick intellectual game! Read every task carefully and choose options that are right in your opinion.

Learn how to say “door” and pronounce it correctly in French, Spanish and German.

“Door” is something that everyone uses every day a lot. Discover its history through these interesting details that will shed more light on this simple object.

• The revolving door was invented to save energy.

  In 1888, a man named Theophilus Van Kannel invented the first revolving door, primarily aiming to stop the cold drafts that used to invade the buildings. A revolving door is more effective than a swing door since it creates an airlock and saves ~36 watt hours of your energy when used.

• Doors used to be status symbols.

  Fancy doors have always been in the past symbols of great wealth and high social standing. Luxurious doors, for instance, were one of the main features of royal tombs in ancient Egypt. “Keeping up with the Joneses” was originally meant to have fancy front doors like others do.

• “Holding the door” customs vary globally.

  In North America and Europe, it is common to hold the door open for strangers. In Asia this practice is stronger because people there are very polite. In Nordic countries, people open doors for one another but expect a quick, indirect and short thanking ritual.

Walk through these insightful quotations to understand how the word “door” symbolizes opportunity, change and life’s transitions in human wisdom!