(pôr′təl, pōr′-) noun
1. A passage for gaining entrance; door; gate; especially, one that is grand and imposing.
2. The architectural composition that includes the entrances and porches of a large church or similar building.
3. Any opening or entrance resembling or suggesting the portal of an edifice: often in the plural. See synonyms under ENTRANCE¹.
—adjective
1. Pertaining to or entering at a port or gate.
2. Anat. Pertaining to or arranged like the portal vein, which conveys blood from the intestines and other abdominal viscera to the liver, there subdividing into capillaries. [<OF, a gate <Med. L portale a city gate, a porch, orig. neut. of portalis <L porta a gate]

(pôr·tál′), Baron Antoine,
1742–1832, French anatomist.