Meaning & use
mead-hall
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Meaning
nouncountableliteraryold-fashioned
A large hall where people gathered in early medieval times to eat, drink mead, and listen to stories or poems.
Grammar: Countable: use 'a mead-hall' or 'mead-halls'. Often appears in historical or literary descriptions.
Patterns
- in the mead-hall
- a famous mead-hall
The king welcomed his warriors into the mead-hall for a night of feasting.
In the poem, the hero travels to a distant mead-hall to fight a monster.
The mead-hall was decorated with shields and tapestries.
Word forms
| plural | mead-halls |
|---|
Common combinations
- great mead-hall
- The great mead-hall could hold hundreds of guests.
- mead-hall culture
- Scholars study mead-hall culture in early medieval Europe.
- in the mead-hall
- Songs were sung in the mead-hall every evening.
- mead-hall poem
- Beowulf is the most famous mead-hall poem in English.
Synonyms and how they differ
- banquet hall
- A more general term for a large room used for formal meals; it does not imply mead or the early medieval setting.
- feasting hall
- A descriptive phrase that emphasizes eating and celebration, often used in historical writing.
- great hall
- Refers to the main room of a castle or manor; it may or may not involve feasting.
Commonly confused: mead-hall or mead?
mead-hall vs mead
Mead is the alcoholic drink made from honey; a mead-hall is the building where people drank it.
Practice
In the old story, the warriors gathered in the ______ to celebrate their victory.
Choose one answer.
A mead-hall is a building where people feasted, so it fits the context of gathering. 'Mead' is the drink itself, 'meadow' is a field, and 'medal' is an award.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “mead-hall”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.