What does mansard mean?
A mansard is a roof with two slopes on each side: a steep lower slope and a shallower upper slope. Its distinctive profile allows windows to be placed in the lower section and can make otherwise awkward attic space usable for a room or upper story. Mansard roofs became especially associated with French and French-influenced architecture, although the form appears in buildings in Britain, the United States, and elsewhere. In ordinary English, the term is commonly used in the fixed phrase mansard roof, while the shorter mansard may refer either to the roof itself, the architectural style, or occasionally the upper story beneath it. Related labels such as gambrel roof and curb roof can describe comparable forms, but their geometry is not always identical. The word is worth knowing not only as a precise architectural term but also because it preserves the name of the influential seventeenth-century French architect François Mansart.
nounA roof with two slopes on each side, the lower slope steeper than the upper one, or an architectural style characterized by such roofs. The design often creates space for an upper story or attic.
- A roof having two slopes on each side, with the lower slope steeper than the upper slope.
- A style of roof construction characterized by this double-sloped form.
- An upper story or attic incorporated beneath a mansard roof.
"The townhouse has a distinctive mansard roof with dormer windows set into its lower slopes."
"The hotel's mansard roof rises above several dormer windows on the street-facing side."
"A local architect used a mansard to make practical use of what would otherwise have been an unused attic."
"The building's upper story is formed by a steep mansard pierced with small windows."
The plural is grammatically standard but uncommon because the word is usually used in the fixed expression mansard roof.
"The two mansards above the neighboring houses are covered in weathered slate."
The mansard roof takes its English name from François Mansart, the celebrated French architect whose surname became a byword for an ingenious roof.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of mansard
English borrowed mansard from French mansarde in the eighteenth century. The French word derives from the surname of François Mansart, the seventeenth-century French architect credited with developing and popularizing this form of roof. French also has the related adjective mansardé, meaning fitted with or having a mansard roof.
Related word forms
How mansard is actually used
This is specialized architectural vocabulary rather than everyday language. The bare form is often replaced by the established compound mansard roof, especially when specifying the form of a building.
Easily confused with mansard
A mansard roof slopes on all four sides, whereas a gambrel roof normally has two slopes on two opposing sides and a ridge along the other two.