Meaning & use
coffered ceiling
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Meaning
nouncountabletechnical
A ceiling decorated with a pattern of recessed square or rectangular panels.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a coffered ceiling' or 'coffered ceilings'.
Patterns
- a coffered ceiling
- the coffered ceiling of a building
- a room with a coffered ceiling
The old library has a beautiful coffered ceiling made of dark oak.
They restored the coffered ceiling in the dining room, panel by panel.
From below, the coffered ceiling looked like a grid of shallow boxes.
Word forms
| plural | coffered ceilings |
|---|
Common combinations
- ornate coffered ceiling
- The palace ballroom is famous for its ornate coffered ceiling.
- wooden coffered ceiling
- The wooden coffered ceiling gave the hall a warm, traditional feel.
- install a coffered ceiling
- They decided to install a coffered ceiling to hide the uneven plaster.
- coffered ceiling panels
- Each of the coffered ceiling panels was painted a slightly different shade.
Synonyms and how they differ
- paneled ceiling
- A broader term for any ceiling covered with panels; 'coffered ceiling' specifically means the panels are sunken.
- waffle ceiling
- An informal name for a similar grid-like ceiling, often used for modern acoustic designs rather than historic ones.
Word family
Commonly confused: coffered ceiling or cauliflower ceiling?
coffered ceiling vs cauliflower ceiling
Not a real architectural term; learners sometimes mishear 'coffered' as 'cauliflower' because the sounds are similar.
Practice
Choose the best completion: The architect designed a hall with a coffered ceiling, which means the ceiling was ____.
Choose one answer.
A coffered ceiling is made of recessed panels, so 'divided into sunken panels' is correct. The other options describe different ceiling treatments and do not match the definition.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “coffered ceiling”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.