The Collaborative International Dictionary
onion dome \on`ion dome"\, n. (Architecture) A dome with a pointed top, its width often extending beyond the width of the tower it covers; -- a style of architecture characteristic of Russian Orthodox churches.
Wiktionary
n. (context architecture English) An onion-shaped dome, characteristic of august buildings in Moghul and Russian architecture
WordNet
n. a dome that is shaped like a bulb; characteristic of Russian and Byzantine church architecture
Wikipedia
An onion dome (; compare , "onion") is a dome whose shape resembles an onion. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the drum upon which they sit, and their height usually exceeds their width. These bulbous structures taper smoothly to a point.
It is the predominant form for church domes in Russia (mostly on Russian Orthodox churches) and in Bavaria, Germany ( German: Zwiebelturm (literally "onion tower"), plural: Zwiebeltürme, mostly on Catholic churches), but can also be found regularly across Austria, northeastern Italy, Eastern Europe, Mughal India, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Other types of Eastern Orthodox cupolas include helmet domes (for example, those of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod and of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir), Ukrainian pear domes ( Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev), and Baroque bud domes ( St. Andrew's Church in Kiev).
Usage examples of "onion dome".
The crown of her estate was the wizard's tower, a tall, six-sided structure of green-veined marble, enrobed with flowering vines and topped by an onion dome roof of verdigris copper.
As the lifeboat drew across the harbour he saw how the Aleut houses edged between mountain and bay, and how proudly they all seemed to march behind their white church with its onion dome.
The cathedral had been hit, but the tower with its magnificent onion dome stood by one of those miracles saved for the preservation of churches.
Off on the left, rising above roofs, the great onion dome of the VAB caught some of that light.
It reared up a few streets ahead, a giant cube built of huge roughly hewn stone blocks stained black with soot, and topped by an onion dome lapped in scuffed gilt tiles.
At one end of the lane was a little workshop, at the opposite end the chapel, hardly larger, also colored in fanciful designs, the shakes of its roof bulging to form an onion dome that upheld the Cross.
Corporal Doyle counted five spires, a minaret, and an onion dome that he assumed was also a place of worship.
The interior of the church was all like that-a mixture of styles and materials, announcing all sorts of possibilities but nothing specific, like an onion dome or a menorah.
Sherwood's hosts informed him that the village before him was typical: there was one small church with a little steeple in the form, rapidly becoming familiar to him, of an onion dome.