gallery

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
gallery/ˈɡaləri/

▶noun (pl. galleries)

• 1 a room or building for the display or sale of works of art.

• 2 a balcony or upper floor projecting from a back or side wall inside a hall or church.

• 3 the highest balcony in a theatre, having the cheapest seats.

• 4 (the gallery) a group of spectators, especially those at a golf tournament.

• 5 a long room or passage forming a portico or colonnade.

• 6 a horizontal underground passage in a mine.

– phrases
play to the gallery aim to appeal to popular taste.

– derivatives
galleried adjective.

– origin ME: via OFr. from Ital. galleria ‘gallery’, formerly also ‘church porch’, from med. L. galeria.