A porch is a platform which projects from a building and holds sufficient floor area for living activities (such as sitting, gathering, cooking out), and which is connected to ground level by a short stairway. It must be either open-air or semi-enclosed (e.g. screened-in).

There is no absolutely defined minimum floor area for a porch, because it also depends on configuration. Generally if there is enough room to set up chairs and sit around while other people pass into or out of the entrance, it is large enough to be called a porch.

In contrast, an entrance canopy is a simple covering in front of a doorway. It can be large, but unlike a porch it does not cover a raised platform with substantial area.