enfilade

1 of 2

noun

en·​fi·​lade ˈen-fə-ˌlād 

-ˌläd

1

: an interconnected group of rooms arranged usually in a row with each room opening into the next

2

: gunfire directed from a flanking position along the length of an enemy battle line

enfilade

2 of 2

verb

enfiladed; enfilading

transitive verb

: to rake or be in a position to rake with gunfire in a lengthwise direction

Examples of enfilade in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

The enfilade of upstairs rooms, in its colors and architecture, is also a tribute to the lagoon outside. —Alice Newell-Hanson Stefan Ruiz, New York Times, 27 Feb. 2024

Accessed by elevator, the home is full of period details, starting with an entry gallery and enfilade surrounded by decorative molding and detailed skylights. —Rachel Gallaher, Robb Report, 17 Dec. 2023

The beautiful enfilade rooms, those formal dining rooms and libraries and galleries, are lovely, but the lavish dinner parties and at-home entertaining that were so central to uptown social life have largely gone dormant. —Curbed, 8 Nov. 2022

From there, the space unfolds in an enfilade of narrow rooms. —Laura May Todd Yvan Moreau, New York Times, 30 Nov. 2022

Rooms in different wings were linked by an enfilade that allowed the Georgian house and the Edwardian extension to communicate for the first time. —Joshua Levine, WSJ, 18 Aug. 2022

Grand but respectful gestures were in order to open up the space and still maintain the enfilade of rooms that all overlooked the park. —Wendy Goodman, Curbed, 15 Nov. 2021

The invaders were better armed, and laid down an enfilade of cannon fire. —The Economist, 19 Dec. 2020

At center stage are hundreds of pieces of porcelain by Théodore Deck, a 19th-century French ceramist, piled on tables and lined up row after row in the main floor’s enfilade of rooms. —Whitney Robinson, ELLE Decor, 11 Sep. 2019

Verb

Tumbling forward under enfilading fire to ALEPPO Pte. —Ishion Hutchinson, The New York Review of Books, 12 Oct. 2023

Bodies were disfigured by thundering artillery bombardments and the scythe-like enfilade fire from machine guns. —David Kindy, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 June 2020

At regimental headquarters, the general received reports of bad sniping and enfilading machine gun fire from the forward units. —Washington Post, 29 May 2018

Word History

Etymology

Noun

French, from enfiler to thread, enfilade, from Old French, to thread, from en- + fil thread — more at file

First Known Use

Noun

circa 1730, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1706, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for enfilade

• amphipod
• arthropod
• copepod
• decapod
• endopod
• escalade
• esplanade
• exopod
• gastropod
• goldenrod
• isopod
• overawed