What is the most appropriate word for a city gate entrance?
If I want to say that Tiananmen has 5 holes in the bottom. What is the best word for them? arches? gateways?

Thanks for helping.

Question

What is the most appropriate word for a city gate entrance?
If I want to say that Tiananmen has 5 holes in the bottom. What is the best word for them?  arches? gateways?

Thanks for helping.

Answer

"Arches" is best because the openings (i) truly are arch-shaped (meaning, curved on the top), and (ii) don't appear to have doors/gates in them.  "Gates" would be appropriate if the arches actually contained doors that closed, because a "gate" usually implies such a door.

Answer

Depends on the shape - if they are arch-shaped then they are arches. If they are square or rectangular (or some other shape that isn’t an arch) then they are gateways, or entrances, which can mean entrances of any shape. A gateway means it has a gate, an entrance doesn’t need to have a gate.

Answers · 2

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