- accompanying pit 陪葬坑
- A pit dug near a tomb and filled with objects, figures or animals meant to serve the dead.
- amphitheatre 圆形剧场
- An oval arena with seats rising all round it, built by the Romans for fights and shows.
- apse 后殿
- The rounded end of a church behind the altar.
- battlements 垛口
- The notched parapet on the outer side of a wall: defenders shoot through the gaps and shelter behind the raised parts.
- bracket sets (dougong) 斗拱
- Interlocking wooden blocks and arms set on top of a column. They carry the weight of a deep roof overhang and are fitted without nails.
- burial chamber 地宫
- The underground rooms of a tomb where the coffin lies. In Chinese the word means "underground palace".
- burial mound 封土
- The earth heaped over an imperial tomb. The burial chamber lies beneath or beside it.
- caisson ceiling 藻井
- A ceiling that rises in the middle into a deep sunken panel, often carved with a dragon. In Chinese halls it marks the most honoured spot below.
- canopy (baldachin) 华盖
- A roof on columns raised over an altar or a tomb. Bernini's bronze one in St Peter's stands over the tomb of Peter.
- caryatid 女像柱
- A column carved as a standing woman. The six on the Erechtheion in Athens are the best known.
- choir 唱诗席
- The part of a church between the crossing and the altar, where the clergy and singers sit.
- cliff inscription 摩崖石刻
- Writing cut straight into a rock face, as distinct from a stele, which is a slab set up to stand on its own.
- colonnade 柱廊
- A row of columns carrying a roof or a beam.
- dome 穹顶
- A rounded roof shaped like half a ball.
- double-eaved roof 重檐
- A roof with two tiers of eaves, one above the other. In imperial China it was kept for buildings of the highest rank.
- flying buttress 飞扶壁
- An arch of stone outside a church that carries the push of the vault across to a pier, so that the walls can be thin and full of glass.
- frieze 饰带
- The horizontal band above the columns of a classical building, often carved with figures.
- glazed tiles 琉璃瓦
- Roof tiles fired with a coloured glaze. Yellow was reserved for the emperor; green and blue had their own ranks and uses.
- hall of worship (haiden) 拜殿
- The hall in front of a shrine's main hall, where visitors pray. The main hall behind it is closed to them.
- hypogeum 地下层
- The underground level. At the Colosseum it held the cages, lifts and passages below the arena floor.
- main hall (hondō, honden) 本堂 / 本殿
- The chief building of a temple or shrine. In a Japanese Buddhist temple it is the hondō (本堂), where the main image is kept; in a Shinto shrine it is the honden (本殿), where the deity dwells.
- memorial archway 牌坊
- A free-standing gateway of stone or timber with no doors, put up to honour a person or to mark the way into a place.
- metope 排档间饰
- One of the square carved panels set in a row above the columns of a Doric temple.
- mortise and tenon 榫卯
- A joint in which a tongue cut on one timber fits a slot cut in another, holding a frame together without nails.
- The long central space of a church, from the main door to the crossing.
- niche 佛龛
- A recess cut into a cliff or wall to hold a carved figure.
- obelisk 方尖碑
- A tall four-sided stone shaft tapering to a point, first made in ancient Egypt.
- pediment (gable) 山墙
- The triangular gable at each end of a temple roof, filled with sculpture.
- prayer flags 经幡
- Strings of cloth printed with Tibetan Buddhist texts, hung where the wind will carry the words.
- rammed earth 夯土
- Earth pounded hard, layer on layer, between wooden boards. Most early Chinese walls and platforms were built this way.
- relief 浮雕
- Carving that stands out from a flat background, not cut free all round.
- rose window 玫瑰窗
- A large round window filled with stained glass set in stone tracery.
- sacred way 神道
- The straight road leading to a tomb, often lined with stone animals and officials.
- stained glass 彩色玻璃
- Coloured glass cut into pieces and joined with strips of lead to make a picture.
- tomb stupa 灵塔
- A gilded reliquary tower holding the preserved body of a Dalai Lama or another high lama.
- torii 鸟居
- The gateway of a Shinto shrine: two posts and two crossbars. It marks where ordinary ground ends and the shrine begins.
- travertine (in lakes) 钙华
- Lime that hard water leaves behind as it flows. It builds the pale dams and terraces between the lakes of Jiuzhaigou.
- Vairocana 卢舍那
- The Buddha who stands for the truth itself, lighting all worlds. The great seated figures at Longmen and at Tōdai-ji are both Vairocana.
- vault 拱顶
- A ceiling built as an arch of stone or brick.
- watchtower 敌楼
- A tower built astride the wall, with rooms for soldiers and stores and a fighting platform on top. A beacon tower is a different thing: it stands apart and signals with smoke or fire.
- white marble 汉白玉
- A fine white marble quarried near Beijing, used for the terraces, balustrades and carved ramps of imperial buildings.