lobby

The word “lobby” means an entrance hall or waiting area in a building. In plain terms, a building's entrance hall, an interest group that pressures politicians, or the act of pressuring them.

“Lobby” is pronounced LOB-ee (/ˈlɑ.bi/ in IPA).

Here is “lobby” used in a sentence: “We arranged to meet in the hotel lobby at noon.”

Depending on how it is used, “lobby” can be a noun and a verb.

The word “lobby” comes from Medieval Latin. From Medieval Latin lobia, "a covered walkway or gallery" — the political sense grew from people gathering in the entrance hall of a legislature to buttonhole lawmakers.

“Lobby” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the B2 level.

“Lobby” has 3 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: an entrance hall or waiting area in a building.

Both are entrance areas, and in many buildings the words are interchangeable. "Lobby" is the usual word for the reception and waiting area of a hotel, office block, or apartment building, while "foyer" is preferred for the entrance hall of a theatre, concert hall, or private home.

The political sense grew out of the architectural one: people seeking to influence lawmakers would wait in the lobby — the entrance hall — of a legislative building to speak with them. From that practice, "lobby" came to name both the activity of persuasion and the organized groups who pursue it.

Advocacy is the broad activity of publicly arguing for a cause, aimed at anyone from the general public to the media. Lobbying is narrower: it means trying to persuade lawmakers or public officials directly to support a particular cause, and in many countries it is a formally regulated activity.

Lobby follows the regular pattern for verbs ending in a consonant plus y: lobbies, lobbied, lobbying. The same spelling change applies to the plural of the noun — one lobby, two lobbies.