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Where I live, many apartments are build in a way that after you open the door of an apartment, then you have a small room "entrance room" in which people can put their shoes or other things, and from there there are another rooms (such as kitchen and bedroom or living room etc.).

This room is variable in its size, but I'm asking about 6*2M room. Now we call it corridor, and when I translate this word to English it is called also corridor... Now the issue is that the definition in Cambridge dictionary for the word corridor is:

Corridor: a long passage in a building or train, especially with rooms on either side.

It seems that corridor in my language and corridor in English is not the same, and in English people call this place in a different name. What is this name for our corridor?

The following illustration demonstrates this area by the number 4. enter image description here

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8 Answers 8

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Not one hundred percent sure, but I think it's called an entrance hallway. It definitely can't be just a hallway because hallways are typically long, spacious corridors that connect apartments on the same floor.

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The word that comes immediately to mind is vestibule, though it feels fairly formal, often describing the architecture of churches or large buildings such as the White House.

ves·ti·bule ˈvestəˌbyo͞ol/ noun 1. an antechamber, hall, or lobby next to the outer door of a building. synonyms: entrance hall, hall, hallway, entrance, porch, portico, foyer, lobby, anteroom, narthex, antechamber, waiting room "brochures are available in the vestibule"

  • on Amazon in the UK I found a sign saying "please take shoes off" advertised as a "Home Vestibule Boot Room Sign". (As with many shopping sites, item titles are optimized to match as many search terms as possible rather than for grammatical correctness.)
  • A site talking about Japanese architecture said "The vestibule just inside the main entrance to a Japanese home is called a genkan." and went on to describe the formal etiquette of taking off shoes, waiting for admission to the house proper, etc.
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foyer I think is the word you're looking for. The foyer to a home is usually a sort of greeting before entering the rest of the abode. At the same time the dimensions of a foyer aren't exactly standard.

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  • Could you edit your post and explain why you think it fits, and/or provide a relevant dictionary entry?
    – Em.
    Commented Nov 26, 2019 at 6:44
  • Being from North America, in my experience, "foyer" is the only correct answer. oxfordenglishdictionary.us specifically marks this as a North American regionalism for "an entrance hall in a house or flat". The only other similar term I've heard, but usually used to refer to a back or secondary entranceway, is "mudroom", as in, where you leave your boots when you come in from the fields. merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mudroom (EDIT: D'oh! This came up in my "hot network questions", not sure why a 3 year old question was listed. Just noticed.)
    – John Smith
    Commented Sep 11, 2021 at 10:37
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Most people in Britain and commonwealth regions would call it the entrance hall or simply the hall (without any risk of its being misunderstood as a church, school or concert kind of hall). Likewise, the hall mirror, hall carpet, etc.

In these areas, (entrance) hall is the term used on building plans by council officials, architects, etc.

It would be regarded as peculiar or pretentious to call it a foyer or a lobby, both terms being used for those large, airy and rather wasteful functional areas at the entrance to office buildings, theatres and so on.

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It can be a 'lobby' depending on the purpose of the flat and the size of the room. It could be an "entry hallway" or an "entrance hallway", also "entry hall" or "entrance hall". It could be an "entrance room" or an "entry room". It could be a "foyer" - an entrance hall or other open area in a building used by the public, especially a hotel or theatre. (an entrance hall in a house or flat. "North America").

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  • If you read the entery in the dictionary that you linked to, then you we'll see that you cannot call the place that I asked about in the name lobby. It's for public places, like entrance rooms of buildings or hotels. Check it out.
    – Virtuous Legend
    Commented Dec 14, 2017 at 9:21
  • You can call a public flat's entry room a lobby. Like a dentist's flat for instance.
    – SovereignSun
    Commented Dec 14, 2017 at 9:32
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You could call it an entryway.

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This kind of thing is very localized and is usually handled via vernacular. Most of the suggestions provided here will work. It just depends on where you are. If you choose one of the provided answers, you will most likely be understood. The locals will correct you if you are too far off base.

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I believe anteroom sounds more fitting. We rented an old mansion in Connecticut. When entering the home there was a very small room about 5’x 5’ Then, A second door that opened into the grand foyer. I believe the purpose of the small room was to prevent the cold air from entering the home and also To prevent losing the warm air from inside the home. Also, my father was an ice cream manufacturer. He had a large room he would put a gallon of ice cream in to freeze once it had been made. Before entering the large freezer room there was a smaller room he referred to as the anteroom. I would think it would serve the same purpose to prevent the freezing air from escaping and to keep the warm air out of the freezer

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