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portal

[pawr-tl, pohr-]

noun

a door, gate, or entrance, especially one of imposing appearance, as to a palace.

an iron or steel bent for bracing a framed structure, having curved braces between the vertical members and a horizontal member at the top.

an entrance to a tunnel or mine.

Computers. a Web site that functions as an entry point to the Internet, as by providing useful content and linking to various sites and features on the World Wide Web.

Origin:
1300–50; Middle English portale < Medieval Latin, noun use of neuter of portālis of a gate. See portal²

Related forms

por·taled, por·talled, adjective

Synonyms
1. entranceway, doorway, entry, threshold.

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Portal is always a great word to know.

So is nest. Does it mean:

the primary display screen of a user interface, on which various icons represent files and programs can be launched

to place a routine inside another routine that is at a higher hierarchical level

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Example Sentences

Accustomed to portal environments, subscribers misunderstand requests for information at individual sites.

We've become a major portal for all kinds of students to enter higher education.

GM is saying that it intends to keep control of the portal rather than spin it off in a public offering.

EXPAND

Accustomed to portal environments, subscribers misunderstand requests for information at individual sites.

We've become a major portal for all kinds of students to enter higher education.

GM is saying that it intends to keep control of the portal rather than spin it off in a public offering.

Hypnosis may be an important portal to that trance free state.

So, a magazine for the moneyed plans a gilded portal.

Your radiologist will use the stent to connect your portal vein to one of your hepatic veins.

First, it is much cheaper to support a web portal than a brick-and-mortar school.

It will surely come-certainly on the educational portal the government is planning.

The idea that spaceships might zip across the universe using black holes as a high-speed portal is a well-worn sci-fi cliché.

Just use a student portal that supplies all needs in one place.

Alternatively there are high pressure blow systems that form a convection barrier through an open door portal.

Orders flow through a web portal and bids can be solicited from pre-qualified suppliers.

The leading internet portal benefited from a recovery of internet advertising.

Hulu seemed to have everything going against it: it was a portal run by media companies in an age of search and start-ups.

Stronach said, local students no longer used the college essentially as a portal to the main campus.

We are also launching a companion portal to the book on our website, which expands the reach of the ideas and the solutions.

Facebook sues the start-up social networking portal for accessing its site without authorization.

High-profile political bloggers create a portal highlighting the day's hottest content.

In a few months he created iFrance, an internet portal that quickly became popular.

He designed and implemented a student portal and single sign-on system that has been nationally recognized.

Swap characters to gain their special abilities or drop two on the portal for multi-player.

Jumanji is a visually elaborate fantasy about an enchanted board game that opens a magical portal to a jungle universe.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

adjective

noting or pertaining to the transverse fissure of the liver.

noun

portal vein.

Origin:
1605–15; < Medieval Latin portālis of a gate. See port⁴, -al¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source

Link To portal

Collins

World English Dictionary

portal (ˈpɔːt^əl)

—n
1.	an entrance, gateway, or doorway, esp one that is large and impressive
2.	any entrance or access to a place
3.	computing an internet site providing links to other sites

—*adj*
4.	anatomy
	a. of or relating to a portal vein: hepatic portal system
	b. of or relating to a porta

[C14: via Old French from Medieval Latin portāle, from Latin porta gate, entrance]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

portal

c.1300, from M.L. portale "city gate, porch," from neut. of portalis (adj.) "of a gate," from L. porta "gate" (see port (2)).

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

portal por·tal (pôr'tl)
adj.

Of or relating to a porta or hilum.
Of or relating to the portal vein or the portal system.
Of or relating to a point of entrance to an organ, especially the transverse fissure of the liver, through which the blood vessels enter.

The portal vein.
The point of entry into the body of a pathogenic microorganism.

American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

portal definition

A Web site that provides a gateway to other Web sites.

FOLDOC

Computing Dictionary

PORTAL definition

Process-Oriented Real-Time Algorithmic Language.
["PORTAL - A Pascal-based Real-Time Programming Language", R. Schild in Algorithmic Languages, J.W. deBakker et al eds, N-H 1981].

portal definition

World-Wide Web
A website that aims to be an entry point to the World-Wide Web, typically offering a search engine and/or links to useful pages, and possibly news or other services. These services are usually provided for free in the hope that users will make the site their default home page or at least visit it often. Popular examples are Yahoo and MSN. Most portals on the Internet exist to generate advertising income for their owners, others may be focused on a specific group of users and may be part of an intranet or extranet. Some may just concentrate on one particular subject, say technology or medicine, and are known as a vertical portals.
(2001-07-07)

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"I stand by your portal,
a white pillar,
luminous."

-Hilda Doolittle

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