The meanings attributed to the word hall have varied over the centuries, as social practices have changed. The word derives from the Old Teutonic (hallâ), where it is associated with the idea of covering or concealing. In modern German it is Halle where it refers to a building but Saal where it refers to a large public room though the distinction is blurred:(Halle (Architektur) (de)). The latter may arise from a genitive form of the former. The French salle is borrowed from the German.

The Oxford English Dictionary gives nine meanings of hall relevant to buildings with a root of the word meaning "...to cover, conceal." A hall is, fundamentally, a relatively large space enclosed by a roof such as a market hall. Coming from the Old English language, it was brought into Britain in the fifth century.^{[citation needed]}

A hall is also a large, public or stately room in a building, such as Westminster Hall.

Hall also may refer to a building itself where meetings or events occur such as a Guild hall, a town hall or a concert hall.

Also a dwelling-house with a large, open room (the hall) typically with an open hearth such as the original form of the Wealden hall house.

In 500, such a simple building was the residence of a lord and his retainers. This is the kind of hall which Beowulf knew. Even now, hall is the term used for a country house in midland and northern England.

The concept was more fundamental than referring to just domestic buildings. Though the lord's hall had an administrative aspect, this was more prominent in the town hall and the guild hall. The term might even be applied to a temple, in the same way as a basilica, now an ecclesiastical building, originated as a lordly reception hall with other domestic and other buildings close by in the same compound, just like an Anglo-Saxon moated hall but in a warmer climate. Compare the Basilica in Trier. (picture). Similarly, the French word salle can refer to a large, former church building such as the Salle Stengel de Lorentzen (fr) or to a sports hall (fr) large enough for playing hockey in.

Later, partitions were set up so that the lord's family could have more privacy, a fairly new concept in northern Europe at the time. The English had come to Britain from a part of Europe which had not been directly exposed to the ways of the Roman Empire. As further time passed, the hall became the largest room of the house, often referred to as the great hall. While the humbler residents still slept there, the lord's family had one or more chambers at one end of the building in what came to be called the solar.