Window
opening to admit light or air
A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and sometimes allows the passage of sound and air. Modern windows are usually glazed, or covered in some other transparent or translucent material, a sash set in a frame in the opening. The sash and frame are also referred to as a window. Many glazed windows may be opened, to allow ventilation, or closed to exclude inclement weather. Windows may have a latch or similar mechanism to lock the window shut or to hold it open by various amounts.
Types include the eyebrow window, fixed windows, hexagonal windows, single-hung, and double-hung sash windows, horizontal sliding sash windows, casement windows, awning windows, hopper windows, tilt, and slide windows (often door-sized), tilt and turn windows, transom windows, sidelight windows, jalousie or louvered windows, clerestory windows, lancet windows, skylights, roof windows, roof lanterns, bay windows, oriel windows, thermal, or Diocletian, windows, picture windows, rose windows, emergency exit windows, stained glass windows, French windows, panel windows, double- or triple-paned windows, and witch windows.
Etymology
The English word window originates from the Old Norse vindauga, from vindr 'wind' and auga 'eye'. In Norwegian Nynorsk and Icelandic, the Old Norse form has survived to this day (in Icelandic only as a less used word for a type of small open "window", not strictly a synonym for gluggi, the Icelandic word for 'window'). In Swedish, the word vindöga remains as a term for a hole through the roof of a hut, and in the Danish language vindue and Norwegian Bokmål vindu, the direct link to eye is lost, just as for window. The Danish (but not the Bokmål) word is pronounced fairly similarly to window.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Window” is opening to admit light or air. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Window, opening and admit, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q35473. The Library of Congress control number is sh85146940. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Window” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.