atrium

Meanings

1. A central room or space in ancient Roman homes, open to the sky in the middle; a similar space in other buildings.
2. A square hall lit by daylight from above, into which rooms open at one or more levels.
3. A cavity, entrance, or passage.
4. Any enclosed body cavity or chamber.
5. An upper chamber of the heart that receives blood from the veins and forces it into a ventricle. In higher vertebrates, the right atrium receives blood from the superior vena cava and inferior vena cava, and the left atrium receives blood from the left and right pulmonary veins.
6. A microscopic air sac within a pulmonary alveolus.
7. A cavity inside a porate aperture of a pollen grain formed by the separation of the sexine and nexine layers, widening toward the interior of the grain.

Etymology

From Latin ātrium (“entry hall”), from Etruscan.