Borrowed from French terrasse, from Old Occitan terrassa, from terra (“land”). Doublet of terrasse.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛɹəs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛɹəs

terrace (plural terraces)

1. A flat open area on the topmost floor of a building or apartment
   • 1989, Octavia E. Butler, “Part III, Chapter 7”, in Imago, page 211:

     On a broad ledge near the top, we found a stone cabin. Higher up was a cistern and a few more terraces.

2. A platform that extends outwards from a building.
   • 1909 September 9, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], “A Court Ball”, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen & Co.[…], →OCLC, page 9:

     They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups.

3. (agriculture) A raised, flat-topped bank of earth with sloping sides, especially one of a series for farming or leisure; a similar natural area of ground, often next to a river.
   • 1989, Octavia E. Butler, “Part III, Chapter 7”, in Imago, page 210:

     All the buildings were well kept and there were terraces everywhere, most of them full of growing things.

4. (geology) A step-like landform; (sometimes) remnants of floodplains.

   Hyponyms: fluvial terrace, kame terrace, marine terrace, lacustrine terrace, structural terrace, travertine terrace

5. A row of residential houses with no gaps between them; a group of row houses.
6. A street with such a group of houses in it.
7. (UK, informal) A single house in such a group.

   Synonym: terraced house

   • 2016, Jane Killick, Mind Power: Perceivers #4:

     The cameraman's pace slowed down as he approached what his mind said was where Sian lived. Like all the other houses in the street, it was a Victorian terrace with a postage stamp of an overgrown garden between its front wall and the street.

8. (in the plural, chiefly British) The standing area of a sports stadium.

   Synonym: terracing

9. (chiefly India) The roof of a building, especially if accessible to the residents. Often used for drying laundry, sun-drying foodstuffs, exercise, or sleeping outdoors in hot weather.
10. (heraldry) A champagne, (an ordinary occupying) the base of the shield.
    • 1892, John Woodward, George Burnett, A Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign: With English and French Glossaries, page 337:

      VAN GENNEP uses, Or, on a terrace vert a tulip gules, slipped proper and crowned of the first; LOKE in Zealand has : Argent , on a terrace vert a tulip or, slipped and leaved proper.

    • 1966, The Armorial who is who:

      The whole upon a terrace gules. CREST : A coronet of nobility of five pearls. MOTTO : Omnia Pro Libertate.

    • 2022 September 16, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, A Complete Guide to Heraldry, DigiCat:

      267); "Argent, on a terrace vert, a cannon mounted or, supporting a Bird of Paradise proper" [Rjevski and Yeropkin];

• terrasse (Quebec)

• → Korean: 테라스 (teraseu)

• patio

terrace (third-person singular simple present terraces, present participle terracing, simple past and past participle terraced)

1. To provide something with a terrace.
2. To form something into a terrace.

• caterer, reacter, recrate, retrace