Ceiling: The Top of a Room, and the Limit You Cannot Pass
A ceiling is the upper surface of a room. The word also means an upper limit — on prices, on borrowing, or on how far someone is allowed to rise.
A ceiling is the overhead surface of a room. The figurative sense is now at least as common: a ceiling is any upper limit you cannot pass, whether it is written into a contract or, in the case of the glass ceiling, never written down at all.
- The upper surface of a room. *A crack ran across the ceiling.*
- An upper limit. *A ceiling on borrowing.*
- Cloud base height (aviation). *A ceiling of eight hundred feet.*
- An unspoken barrier to promotion. *The glass ceiling.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | ceiling | A high ceiling. |
| Compound | glass ceiling | Breaking the glass ceiling. |
| Compound | debt ceiling | Raising the debt ceiling. |
| Opposite | floor | A price floor. |
| Related | ceiling rose | An ornate ceiling rose. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The government imposed a ceiling on rent increases.A ceiling on — the standard preposition.
- Prices hit the ceiling in August.Reached the maximum allowed.
- Cloud ceiling was too low for the helicopter to fly.Aviation and weather reporting.
Ceilings and floors
- Ceiling — the maximum permitted
- Floor — the minimum guaranteed
- Cap — a synonym for ceiling, common in finance and sport
- Threshold — the point at which something starts to apply
- Economists use ceiling and floor together, which makes the metaphor easy to remember
The origin is unusually murky. It appears to come from a verb *ceil*, to line or panel a room, possibly connected to Latin *caelum*, sky, or to French *ciel*. There is no link to *sealing*, despite the pronunciation.
Ceiling or roof?
The ceiling is the inside surface you see from below. The roof is the outside structure that keeps the rain off.
What is the glass ceiling?
An invisible barrier stopping qualified people, especially women, from reaching senior roles. The phrase dates from the 1980s.