villa

Definition

A house, often larger and more expensive than average, in the countryside or on the coast, often used as a retreat.

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian villa, from Latin vīlla (“country house”). Doublet of vill and ville.

Example Sentences

• "This villa was long and low and white, and severe after its manner : for upon and about it were none of those playful ebullitions of taste, such as conical towers, domed roofs, embattlements, statues, coloured tiles and crenellations, such as are dear to architects of villas all the world over."
• "They were just ordinary suburban children, and they lived with their Father and Mother in an ordinary red-brick-fronted villa, with coloured glass in the front door, a tiled passage that was called a hall, a bath-room with hot and cold water, electric bells, French windows, and a good deal of white paint, and 'every modern convenience', as the house-agents say."

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