gable

/ˈgeɪbəl/

/ˈgeɪbəl/

Other forms: gables

A gable is the triangular part of a house's exterior wall that supports a pointed or peaked roof. Gothic-style houses are well known for their many gables.

Houses and buildings with pitched roofs have front-facing or side-facing gables — or often, both. The shape and structure of these pointed gables help support a house's roof and give the building a particular architectural style. Nathaniel Hawthorne famously wrote about a building with this architectural feature in The House of the Seven Gables. Gable, originally an Old French word meaning "facade or front," is from the Old Norse gafl, "gable-end," or "gable."

Definitions of gable

1. noun

   the vertical triangular wall between the sloping ends of a gable roof
   synonyms: gable end, gable wall

   types:

   bell gable

   an extension of a gable that serves as a bell cote

   corbie gable

   (architecture) a gable having corbie-steps or corbel steps

   pediment

   a triangular gable between a horizontal entablature and a sloping roof

   type of:

   wall

   an architectural partition with a height and length greater than its thickness; used to divide or enclose an area or to support another structure