Noun

Singular portal

Plural portals

portal (plural portals)

1. A grandiose and often lavish entrance.
2. An entrance, entry point, or means of entry.

   The local library, a portal of knowledge.

3. (Internet) A website that acts as an entrance to other websites on the Internet.
4. (anatomy) A short vein that carries blood into the liver.

Portal may refer to:

• Portal (architecture), a gate, door, or tunnel
• Portal (fiction), a magical or technological doorway that connects two different locations in time or space

In entertainment:

• Portal (interactive novel), a 1986 video game by Activision
• Portal (video game), a 2007 video game by Valve Corporation
  • Portal 2, the sequel to the previously listed game.
• Portal (TV series), a series about MMORPGs

In geography:

• Portal, California
• Portal, Georgia
• Portal, North Dakota

In music:

• Portal (Australian band), a metal band from Australia
• Portal (UK band), a band from the UK
• Portals (album), an album by Arsonists Get All The Girls

In computing:

• Enterprise portal, a framework to provide a single point of access to a variety of information and tools
• Intranet portal, a gateway that unifies access to all enterprise information and applications
• Portal rendering, an optimization technique in 3D computer graphics
• Web portal, a site that functions as a point of access to information on the Internet
• Portals network programming API, a high-performance networking programming interface for massively parallel supercomputers

In other uses:

• Portal (comics), a Marvel comic character
• Portal (Magic: The Gathering), a set in the Magic: The Gathering card game
• Portal Software, a company based in Cupertino, California
• Portals Athletic F.C., a defunct football club, based in Overton, England

Portal is a first-person action/puzzle video game that was released as part of The Orange Box bundle package in October 2007. The game consists primarily of a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the player's character and other simple objects using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (dubbed the "Portal Gun"), a unit that can create an inter-spatial portal between flat planes. The player character is challenged by an AI named "GLaDOS" (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) to complete each puzzle in the "Aperture Science Enrichment Center" using the Portal Gun with the promise of receiving cake and grief counseling when all the puzzles are completed.