ceiling

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsiːlɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -iːlɪŋ
• Homophone: sealing
• Hyphenation: ceil‧ing

Etymology 1

From Middle English celing (“paneling; (bed) cover or hanging”), from celen (“to cover or panel walls”) (from Old French celer (“to conceal”)) + -ing (gerund-forming suffix).

Noun

ceiling (plural ceilings)

1. The overhead closure of a room.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess‎^[1]:

     The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, […].

   The dining room had an ornate ceiling.

2. The upper limit of an object or action.
   • 2008, N. Gregory Mankiw, Principles of Economics (volume 1, page 114)

     Market forces naturally move the economy to the equilibrium, and the price ceiling has no effect on the price or the quantity sold.

3. (aviation) The highest altitude at which an aircraft can safely maintain flight.
4. (meteorology) The measurement of visible distance from ground or sea level to an overcast cloud cover; under a clear sky, the ceiling measurement is identified as "unlimited."

   Even though it was cloudy, there was still enough ceiling for the Blue Angels to perform a great show.

5. (mathematics) The smallest integer greater than or equal to a given number.

   The ceiling of 4.5 is 5; the ceiling of −4.5 is −4.

6. (nautical) The inner planking of a vessel.
7. (finance) The maximum permitted level in a financial transaction.
8. (architecture) The overhead interior surface that covers the upper limits of a room.

Synonyms

• ceil (poetic)
• (mathematics): ceil

Antonyms

• floor

Derived terms

Terms derived from ceiling

• bamboo ceiling
• cathedral ceiling
• ceil
• ceilingward
• cotton ceiling
• dropped ceiling
• flight ceiling
• glass ceiling
• hit the ceiling
• pink ceiling
• rainbow ceiling
• silver ceiling

Translations

upper limit of room

• Afrikaans: plafon
• Albanian: tavan (sq) m, lëpozë (sq) f
• Arabic: سَقْف‎ m (saqf)

  Egyptian Arabic: سقف‎ m (saʾf)

  Hijazi Arabic: سَقْف‎ m (sagf)

• Armenian: առաստաղ (hy) (aṙastał), (rare) առիք (hy) (aṙikʿ)

  Old Armenian: ձեղուն (jełun)

• Azerbaijani: tavan (az)
• Bashkir: түшәм (tüšäm); (Eastern) һайғаҡ (hayğaq), түпә (tüpä), түбәтаҡта (tübätaqta)
• Basque: sabai (eu)
• Belarusian: столь m (stolʹ)
• Bengali: ছাদ (bn) (chad)
• Brunei Malay: siling
• Bulgarian: тава́н (bg) m (taván)
• Burmese: မျက်နှာကြက် (my) (myakhna-krak)
• Catalan: sostre (ca) m
• Cherokee: ᎠᏯᎦᏢ (ayagatlv)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 天花板 (tin¹ faa¹ baan²)

  Mandarin: 天花板 (zh) (tiānhuābǎn), 天棚 (zh) (tiānpéng)

• Chuvash: путалӑх (put̬alăh)
• Cornish: nen
• Crimean Tatar: tavan
• Czech: strop (cs) m
• Danish: loft (da) n
• Dutch: plafond (nl) n, zoldering (nl) f
• Esperanto: plafono
• Estonian: lagi (et)
• Faroese: loft n
• Finnish: katto (fi), sisäkatto (fi), laipio (fi)
• French: plafond (fr) m
• Galician: teito (gl) m, ceo (gl) m
• Georgian: ჭერი (č̣eri)
• German: Decke (de) f
• Greek: οροφή (el) f (orofí), ταβάνι (el) n (taváni)

  Ancient: ὀροφή f (orophḗ)

• Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
• Hausa: silin
• Hebrew: תִּקְרָה‎ (he) f (tik'ráh)
• Hindi: छत (hi) f (chat)
• Hungarian: mennyezet (hu), plafon (hu)
• Icelandic: loft (is) n
• Ido: plafono (io)
• Indonesian: langit-langit, plafon (id)
• Irish: síleáil f
• Italian: soffitto (it) m
• Japanese: 天井 (ja) (てんじょう, tenjō)
• Kazakh: төбе (kk) (töbe), шек (şek)
• Khmer: ពិតាន (km) (pitaan)
• Korean: 천장(天障) (ko) (cheonjang)
• Kyrgyz: потолок (potoloq), шып (ky) (şıp)
• Ladino: taván, techo

• Lao: ເພດານ (lo) (phē dān), ພິດານ (phi dān), ປະຕຸລາ (pa tu lā)
• Latgalian: grīsti, viersejuo greida
• Latin: lacunar n
• Latvian: griesti
• Lithuanian: lubos f pl
• Macedonian: таван m (tavan)
• Malay: siling (ms)
• Malayalam: please add this translation if you can
• Maltese: saqaf m
• Marathi: छत (chat)
• Mongolian: тааз (mn) (taaz), адар (mn) (adar)
• Northern Sami: rohpi
• Norwegian: tak (no) n

  Bokmål: himling m or f, tak (no) n, loft (no) n

• Occitan: plafon (oc) m
• Oriya: please add this translation if you can
• Pashto: سقف‎ (saqf)
• Persian: سقف‎ (fa) (saqf)
• Plautdietsch: Bän m
• Polish: sufit (pl) m, strop (pl) m
• Portuguese: teto (pt) m
• Romanian: plafon (ro) n, tavan (ro) n
• Russian: потоло́к (ru) m (potolók)
• Scottish Gaelic: mullach m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: плафон m, строп m

  Roman: plafon (sh) m, strop (sh) m

• Slovak: strop m
• Slovene: strop (sl) m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: wjerch m

• Spanish: techo (es) m, cielorraso m (mostly Latin America), cielo raso m, plafón (es) m (Puerto Rico)
• Swahili: dari (sw)
• Swedish: tak (sv), innertak (sv) n
• Tagalog: kisame
• Tajik: шифт (šift), сақф (saqf)
• Tatar: түшәм (tt) (tüşäm)
• Telugu: లోకప్పు (te) (lōkappu)
• Thai: เพดาน (th) (pee-daan)
• Turkish: tavan (tr)
• Turkmen: potolok
• Ukrainian: сте́ля f (stélja)
• Urdu: چھت‎ f (chat)
• Uyghur: تورۇس‎ (torus), شىپ‎ (ship)
• Uzbek: shift (uz), potolok
• Vietnamese: trần (vi), trần nhà
• Volapük: nufed (vo)
• Walloon: plafon (wa) m
• Welsh: nenfwd m, nenfydau pl
• Yiddish: סופֿיט‎ (yi) m (sufit), סטעליע‎ f (stelye)

upper limit of an object or action

• Bulgarian: горна граница f (gorna granica)
• Finnish: katto (fi)

• French: plafond (fr) m
• Hungarian: plafon (hu)
• Indonesian: plafon (id), pagu (id)
• Swedish: tak (sv) n

altitude

• Bulgarian: таван (bg) m (tavan)
• Finnish: lakikorkeus (fi)
• Greek: υψόμετρο (el) n (ypsómetro)
• Khmer: ពិតាន (km) (pidaan)

• Portuguese: teto (pt) m
• Russian: потоло́к (ru) m (potolók)
• Spanish: techo (es) m

smallest integer

• Czech: horní celá část f
• Finnish: ylös pyöristetty luku
• French: partie entière par excès (fr) f
• Japanese: 天井関数 (tenjō kansū)

• Norwegian: tak (no) n
• Polish: sufit (pl) m
• Russian: потоло́к (ru) m (potolók)
• Swedish: tak (sv) n

inner planking of a vessel

• Finnish: sisälankutus, karneeraus

Etymology 2

Verb

ceiling

1. present participle of ceil

Anagrams

• cieling