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Highly decorative Window in a Japanese Onsen in hakone A window is an opening in an otherwise solid, opaque surface through which light can pass. For example, a window in the wall of a house, or a window in a scientific measurement device that permits reading of certain wavelengths.
Window is also used metaphorically to refer to a time period during which something can occur and outside of which the thing cannot occur, as in a window of opportunity to launch a rocket to the moon on the most efficient trajectory.
The word Window dates back to Old Norse "Wind Eye"; opening to the air.
Woven bamboo window of the Joan tea house in the Urakuen tea garden in Inuyama
A window is an opening in the wallA wall is a usually solid structure that defines and sometimes protects space. Most commonly, a wall separates space in buildings into rooms, or protects or delineates a space in the open air. There are three principal types of structural walls: building of a buildingBuilding is either the act of creating an object assembled from more than one element, or the object itself. A building is usually a human-created object composed of more than a single element, permanently fixed to the ground, that mediates one or more as that allows light to enter a room and people to see out. At previous times in history they were merely small oval or square holes in the walls.
Very early windows were shielded with hide or cloth stretched over the opening or wooden shuttersA shutter is a movable cover or screen that alternately prevents and permits the passage of some desirable (or undesirable) element. A window shutter is something like a door for a window, usually made of a sturdy material and often louvered, whose origin. Later, two types of windows were invented that allowed light but not weather to pass into a building: mullioned glass windows, which joined multiple small pieces of glass with leadFor the "lead" in news writing, see news style. Lead is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Pb ( L. Plumbum and atomic number 82. A soft, heavy, toxic and malleable poor metal, lead has a dull gray appearance and is bluish white wing, and paperPaper is a thin, flat material produced by the compression of fibres. The fibers used are usually natural and based upon cellulose. The most common material is wood pulp from pulpwood (largely softwood) trees such as pines, but other vegetable fiber mater windows. Mullioned glass windows were the windows of choice among EuropeanFor the band of the same name, see Europe (band . Europe is a continent forming the westermost part of the Eurasian supercontinent. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Se well-to-do, whereas paper windows were economical and widely used in ancient ChinaThis article is on the geographic and cultural entity. For other meanings, see China (disambiguation). China ( Traditional Chinese: , Simplified Chinese: , Hanyu Pinyin: Zhongguo, Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo) is a country in continental East Asia with some oute and Japan. In EnglandEngland is the largest, the most populous, and the most densely populated of the four " Home Nations" which make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). Occupying the south-eastern portion of the island of Great Britain, England, glass became common in the windows of ordinary homes only in the early 17th century. Modern-style floor-to-ceiling windows became possible only after the industrial glass-making process was perfected.
Modern windows are customarily large glassed-in rectangles or squares. Churches traditionally have stained glass windows.
Today a window can be made in any shape and size desired.