westwork

Calque of German Westwerk, from German West (“west”) + Werk (“work”); equivalent to English west +‎ -work.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɛstwɜːk/

westwork (plural westworks)

1. (architecture) The vaulted monumental structure at the western end of a church constructed in some medieval styles, flanked by two towers and containing the entrance.
   • 1987, Malcolm Quantrill, The Environmental Memory: Man and Architecture in the Landscape of Ideas, page 134:

     Facing the raised sanctuary over the vast crypt they also often erected at the west end of the nave a towerlike structure with vaulted stories, that we call the "westwork."