Daily Editorial

Other forms: gables

A gable is the triangular part of a house's exterior wall that supports a pointed or peaked roof. Gothic-style houses are well known for their many gables.

Definitions of gable

Houses and buildings with pitched roofs have front-facing or side-facing gables — or often, both. The shape and structure of these pointed gables help support a house's roof and give the building a particular architectural style. Nathaniel Hawthorne famously wrote about a building with this architectural feature in The House of the Seven Gables. Gable, originally an Old French word meaning ‘facade or front,’ is from the Old Norse gafl, ‘gable-end,’ or ‘gable. ’

Questions

Which of the following is most likely to have gables?

a. a new laptop

b. a grain silo

c. a bunk bed

d. a peaked roof

Answer: d. a peaked roof