Atrium vs. Patio: What's the Difference?

A usually skylit central area, often containing plants, in some modern buildings, especially of a public or commercial nature.

An outdoor space for dining or recreation that adjoins a residence and is often paved.

The open area in the center of an ancient Roman house.

A roofless inner courtyard, typically found in Spanish and Spanish-style dwellings.

The forecourt of a building, such as an early Christian church, enclosed on three or four sides with porticoes.

A paved outside area, adjoining a house, used for dining or recreation.

(Anatomy) A body cavity or chamber, especially either of the upper chambers of the heart that receives blood from the veins and forces it into a ventricle. Also called auricle.

An inner courtyard typical of traditional houses in some regions of Spain.

(architecture) A central room or space in ancient Roman homes, open to the sky in the middle; a similar space in other buildings.

A paved yard or floor where ores are cleaned and sorted, or where ore, salt, mercury, etc., are trampled by horses, to effect intermixture and amalgamation.

(architecture) A square hall lit by daylight from above, into which rooms open at one or more levels.

In Spain, Spanish America, etc., a court or courtyard of a house or other building; esp., an inner court open to the sky.

(anatomy) A cavity, entrance, or passage.

A usually paved area adjacent to a dwelling, used for outdoor lounging, dining, receptions of guests, etc.

(biology) Any enclosed body cavity or chamber.

Usually paved outdoor area adjoining a residence

(anatomy) An upper chamber of the heart that receives blood from the veins and forces it into a ventricle. In higher vertebrates, the right atrium receives blood from the superior vena cava and inferior vena cava, and the left atrium receives blood from the left and right pulmonary veins.

(anatomy) A microscopic air sac within a pulmonary alveolus.

(palynology) A cavity inside a porate aperture of a pollen grain formed by the separation of the sexine and nexine layers, widening toward the interior of the grain.

A square hall lighted from above, into which rooms open at one or more levels.

The main part of either auricle of the heart as distinct from the auricular appendix. Also, the whole articular portion of the heart.

A cavity in ascidians into which the intestine and generative ducts open, and which also receives the water from the gills. See Ascidioidea.

A cavity, entrance, or passage; as, the atrium, or atrial cavity, in the body wall of the amphioxus; an atrium of the infundibula of the lungs, etc.

Any chamber that is connected to other chambers or passageways (especially one of the two upper chambers of the heart)

The central area in a building; open to the sky