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Allure or Wall-walk: Passage behind the parapet of a castle wall

Apse: Circular or polygonal end of a tower or chapel

Arcading: Rows of arches supported on columns, free-standing or attached to a wall (blind arcade)

Arrow Loop: A narrow vertical slit cut into a wall through which arrows could be fired from inside

Ashlar: Blocks of smooth, squared stone of any kind

Bailey or Ward: Courtyard within the walls of the castle

Ballista: Engine resembling a crossbow, used in hurling missiles or large arrows

Barbican: An outwork or forward extension of a castle gateway

Barrel vault: Semicircular roof of stone & timber

Bartizan: Overhanging corner turret

Bastion: A small tower at the end of a curtain wall or in the middle of the outside wall

Batter: The sharp angle at the base of all the walls and towers along their exterior surface

Battlement: A narrow wall built along the outer edge of the wall walk to protect soldiers against attack

Belfry: Tall, movable wooden tower on wheels, used in sieges

Brattice: (see hoarding)

Buttery: Room for the service of beverages

Concentric: Having two sets of walls, one inside the other

Crenelation: A notched battlement made up of alternate crenels (openings) and merlons (square sawteeth)

Cross-wall: An internal dividing wall in a great tower

Curtain wall: A castle wall enclosing a courtyard

Cut: Assault tower

Corbel: Stone bracket projecting from a wall or corner to support a beam

Donjon: The inner stronghold (keep) of a castle

Drawbridge: A wooden bridge leading to a gateway, capable of being raised or lowered

Drum Tower: A round tower built into a wall

Dungeon: The jail, usually found in one of the towers

Enceinte: An enclosing wall, usually exterior, of a fortified place

Embrasure: The low segment of the altering high and low segments of a battlement

Escalade: Scaling of a castle wall

Finial: A slender piece of stone used to decorate the tops of the merlons

Forebuilding: A projection in front of a keep or donjon, containing the stairs to the main entrance

Garderobe: Latrine

Gate House: The complex of towers, bridges, and barriers built to protect each entrance through a castle or town wall

Hall: Principle living quarters of a medieval castle or house

Hoarding: Covered wooden gallery affixed to the top of the outside of a tower or curtain to defend the castle

Inner Ward or Inner Bailey: Open area in the center of a castle

Keep: The inner stronghold of the castle

Loophole: Slit in wall for light, air, or shooting through

Machicolation: A projection in the battlements of a wall with openings through which missiles could be dropped on besiegers

Mangonel: Stone-throwing machine worked by torsion, used as a siege weapon against castles

Merlon: Part of a battlement, the square "sawtooth" between crenels

Meurtriere: Arrow loop, slit in battlement or wall to permit firing of arrows or for observation

Moat: A deep trench usually filled with water that surrounded a castle

Mortar: A mixture of sand, water, and lime and is used as a bonding substance.

Motte: An earthwork mound on which a castle was built

Murder Holes: A section between the main gate and a inner portcullis where arrows, rocks, and hot oil could be dropped from the roof though holes

Oilette: a round opening at the base of a loophole

Oriel or Oriel Window: projecting room on an upper floor, later an upper-floor bay window

Oubliette: A dungeon reached by a trap door

Palisade: A sturdy wooden fence built to enclose a site until a permanent stone wall could be constructed

Parapet: Protective wall at the top of a fortification, around the outer side of the wall-walk

Portcullis: Vertical sliding wooden grille shod with iron suspended in front of a gateway, let down to protect the gate

Postern Gate: Secondary gate or door

Putlog Hole: A hole intentionally left in the surface of a wall for insertion of a horizontal pole

Ram: Battering ram

Revet: Face with a layer of stone, stone slabs etc., for more strength. Some earth mottes were revetted with stone.

Rubble: A mixture of stone and mortar.

Sapping: Undermining, as of a castle wall

Screens: Wooden partition at the kitchen end of a hall, protecting a passage leading to the buttery, pantry, and kitchen

Solar: Originally a room above ground level, but commonly applied to the great chamber or a private sitting room off the great hall

Springald: War engine of the catapult type, employing tension

Trebuchet: War engine developed in the Middle Ages employing counterpoise

Turning Bridge: A drawbridge that pivoted in the middle

Turret: A small tower rising above and resting on one of the main towers, usually used as a look out point

Wall Walk: The area along the tops of the walls from which soldiers could defend the castle

Ward: Courtyard or bailey

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