: the architecture or style that developed in Italy and various parts of western Europe between the periods of the Roman and the Gothic styles:
a
: a continuation before a.d. 1000 of the Early Christian style in unvaulted basilican churches marked by the development of the cruciform plan with choirs and transepts without sculptural treatment
b
: any of several advanced and differentiated styles (as Lombard, Norman, Rhenish architecture) having as common features the use of the round arch and vault with narrowing and heightening of the nave, the substitution for columns of piers often with engaged shafts, the decorative use of arcades and colonnettes, and profuse carved ornament especially on capitals, stringcourses, and the moldings of doorways
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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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