A Doorway Is the Opening, Not the Door
The doorway is the gap in the wall. The door is the thing that fills it. Keeping them apart makes several everyday sentences make sense.
A doorway is the framed opening you walk through; the door is the panel that closes it. That is why you can stand *in* a doorway but not in a door, and why a doorway still exists in a wall with no door hung in it at all.
- The opening a door fits into. *He filled the doorway.*
- A sheltered entrance in a street. *Someone was sleeping in the doorway.*
- A way in, figuratively. *A doorway to a better job.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | doorway | A narrow doorway. |
| Plural | doorways | Shop doorways. |
| Related | threshold | Cross the threshold. |
| Related | doorframe | A wooden doorframe. |
| Related | lintel | The stone lintel above. |
How it is used in a sentence
- She paused in the doorway, listening.In the doorway is the standard phrase.
- The doorway was too narrow for the sofa.Measurements are of the doorway, not the door.
- Earthquake advice once told people to stand in a doorway.Advice that has since changed for modern buildings.
The parts of a doorway
- Threshold — the strip you step over at the bottom
- Jamb — the upright side of the frame
- Lintel — the beam across the top
- Sill — the bottom member, more common on windows
- Architrave — the moulding around the whole opening
A compound of *door* and *way*, first recorded in the eighteenth century. *Way* here has its old sense of a path or passage, the same sense hiding in *hallway*, *gateway* and *highway*.
Doorway or threshold?
The doorway is the whole opening. The threshold is only the strip at the bottom, which is why you carry someone over it rather than through it.
Is a doorway a safe place in an earthquake?
Only in old unreinforced houses. Modern guidance is to drop, cover and hold on under sturdy furniture instead.