plenary room

Meanings

1. 1nouncountable

   The large hall where all the people at a conference or meeting gather together for a talk or vote.

   Grammar: Countable: use a/an or the before it, and make it plural as plenary rooms.

   Patterns

   • in the plenary room
   • hold something in the plenary room
   • the main plenary room

   The opening talk is in the plenary room on the ground floor.

   Delegates filled the plenary room for the final vote.

   We moved from the plenary room into smaller groups after lunch.

2. 2nouncountable

   A room designed to seat every member of a group, rather than a small subgroup.

   Grammar: Often used after an or the to point to one particular room of this kind.

   Patterns

   • a plenary room
   • book a plenary room

   The hotel has a plenary room that can hold three hundred people.

   They booked a plenary room and two breakout rooms for the workshop.

Word forms

Common combinations

in the plenary room

The keynote speaker is already in the plenary room.

the main plenary room

Signs pointed us to the main plenary room.

a packed plenary room

She addressed a packed plenary room on the first morning.

hold a session in the plenary room

They held the closing session in the plenary room.

move to the plenary room

After the coffee break, everyone moved to the plenary room.

Synonyms and how they differ

main hall

More general and used for any big room, not only for meetings where everyone gathers.

assembly hall

Common in schools and refers to a hall for gatherings, but not usually for conference sessions.

auditorium

Focuses on the seating and stage rather than on the fact that all members are present.

Opposites

Word family

plenary adjective

Full or attended by all members, as in a plenary session.

plenary noun

A meeting attended by all members of a group.

Commonly confused: plenary room or plenary session?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “plenary room”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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