gateway
/ˈɡeɪtweɪ
/noun
1An opening that can be closed by a gate: we turned into a gateway leading to a cottage...
- With only two exits open - narrow gateways at that - there is no possibility that a panicked crowd could get safely to the lower level with no direction from anyone in authority.
- New gateways and private entrances have yet to be created and farmers are still waiting for essential fencing work to be done.
- The work involved the widening of the entrance gateway thus eradicating the danger of traffic emerging unto Church Road from the church grounds.
1.1A frame or arch built around or over a gate: a big house with a wrought-iron gateway...
- During these months, Wright's original vision of ornamental concrete arched gateways scaled to frame the auditorium became steel bridges on columns subordinate in size to the auditorium.
- The gateway frames part of the curving balustrade, helping to point the way to the front door.
- Through the arch of the inner gateway mined buildings are visible, scattered across a grassy plateau with the citadel on higher ground at the far end.
1.2A place regarded as giving access to another place: Mombasa, the gateway to East Africa...
- New buildings line the west edge of West Street; a new public square on West Street marks the gateway to the financial district.
- Many investors and companies view Ireland as the gateway to the market of 370 million people, which comprises the membership of the European Union.
- Two towers were built across the world from each other and were apparently the gateway to another world.
1.3A means of achieving a state or condition: to me a home in the country was a gateway to happiness...
- What is life to someone who wishes that death was a gateway to paradise and that life is just a journey of hardships?
- This book - several feet high - is the gateway, literally by way of a hidden passage, to the next section, The Dragon's Hand.
- The gateway course also provides a route in to higher education for those seeking a change in direction in terms of their career path.
2 Computing A device used to connect two different networks, especially a connection to the Internet.All that we had was a customer that had two different gateways, two different internet connections; if one were to fail they would switch to the other one....
- Implementing security at the internet gateway can block phishing email and sites.
- The company also offers packaged Internet devices and Ethernet gateways.