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Glossary

Flowing tracery
Bar tracery with uninterrupted flowing curves, typical of the 14th century; also called curvilinear tracery.
Flushwork
Trimmed (knapped) flint used with dressed stone to form patterns.
Fluting
Series of concave grooves (flutes), their common edges sharp (arris) or blunt (fillet).
Flying buttress
A buttress which transmits the thrust to a heavy support (abutment) by means of an arch or half-arch.
Flying stair
A stair with one or more flights unsupported by a wall on either side.
Foil
(lit. leaf): Lobe formed by the cusping of a circular or other shape in tracery. Trefoil (three), quatrefoil (four), cinquefoil (five), sexfoil (six) and multifoil express the number of lobes in a shape.
Foliate
Decorated with leaves.
Font
Vessel in a church or chapel for baptismal water, usually of stone or lead.
Fore-building
Structure protecting an entrance.
Forestair
External stair, usually unenclosed.