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M

machicolations: A projecting gallery at the top of a castle wall, supported by a row of corbeled arches and having openings in the floor through which stones and boiling liquids could be dropped on attackers. A row of small corbeled arches used as an ornamental architectural feature.
manor house: The mansion of a lord or wealthy person.
manse: A house belonging to a minister of the church (usually Presbyterian).
mansard roof: Named after the 17th century French architect Francois Mansard,
this roof has a double slope, with the lower slope being steeper and longer than the upper one; a gambrel roof—typically Victorian.
masonry:  Stonework or brickwork parts of a building or other structure.
mastaba: An ancient Egyptian mudbrick tomb with a rectangular base and sloping sides and flat roof; "the Egyptian pyramids developed from the mastaba."
mausoleum:  Structure for a tomb.
Mediterranean style:  An eclectic design style that was first introduced in the United States around the turn of the nineteenth century, and came into prominence in the 1920s and 1930s. The style evolved from rekindled interest in Italian Renaissance palaces and seaside villas dating from the sixteenth century, and can be found predominantly in California and Florida due to the popular association of these coastal regions with Mediterranean resorts. Generally characterized by stuccoed wall surfaces, flat or low-pitched terra cotta and tile roofs, arches, scrolled or tile-capped parapet walls and articulated door surrounds. Balconies and window grilles are common, and are generally fabricated out of wrought iron or wood.  
mezzanine:  Low storey introduced between two higher ones, usually the ground and first floors.
Middle Ages:  Commonly dated from the fall of the Western Roman Empire (or by some scholars, before that) in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century.
minimalism:  Emphasizes extreme simplification of form and color.
Modern:  Elimination of ornament.  It was the dominant architectural style for institutional and corporate buildings given to a number of building styles with similar characteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the for over thirty years after the Second World War.
Moderne Style:  The style strove for a modern and artistic expression to complement the machine age. An emphasis on the future rather than the past was the style's principal characteristic. Smooth, rounded wall surfaces, often stucco; flat roof with small ledge at roofline; horizontal grooves or lines in walls (sometimes fluted or pressed metal); asymmetrical façade; casement/corner windows or other horizontally arranged windows; metal balustrades; glass-block windows, often curved. Unlike Art Deco, an emphasis on the horizontal.
modillions: The brackets supporting the projecting part of a Corinthian cornice.
modular:  Constructed with standardized units or dimensions allowing flexibility and variety in use.
molding:  Shaped decorative outlines on projecting cornices and members in wood and stone. Any of various long, narrow, ornamental surfaces that are either continuous or discontinuous, with uniform cross sections for the full length and a strikingly modeled profile that casts strong shadows: used on frames, tables, etc., and certain architectural members, as cornices, stringcourses, or bases.
monolith:  A single block or piece of stone of considerable size, especially when used in architecture or sculpture.
mortar:  A mixture of lime or cement or a combination of both with sand and water, used as a bonding agent between bricks, stones, etc.
mosaic:  A decoration created by setting small  pieces of glass, stone, or marble in a matrix—often concrete.  Wall mosaics were most prevalent in the Early Christian and Byzantine periods, during which they were a very important form of wall decoration.
motif:  A distinctive and recurring form, shape, figure, etc., in a design, as in a painting or on wallpaper.
mullions:  Stone vertical elements dividing a window into two or more lights.

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