cottage

American  

[kot-ij] / ˈkɒt ɪdʒ /

noun

• cottages
  plural

1. a small house, usually of only one story.

2. a small, modest house at a lake, mountain resort, etc., owned or rented as a vacation home.

3. one of a group of small, separate houses, as for patients at a hospital, guests at a hotel, or students at a boarding school.

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cottage British  

/ ˈkɒtɪdʒ /

noun

1. a small simple house, esp in a rural area

2. a small house in the country or at a resort, used for holiday purposes

3. one of several housing units, as at a hospital, for accommodating people in groups

4. slang a public lavatory

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• cottaged
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cottages
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of cottage

1350–1400; Middle English cotage. See cot ², -age; compare Medieval Latin cotagium, apparently < Anglo-French

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Explanation

A cottage is a small house, particularly a traditional or old-fashioned house, or one that is used seasonally. Your family might rent a cottage near the beach every summer. In the US, a cottage typically has only one story, while in Canada a house can be much larger and still be called a cottage. In the Middle Ages, a cottage was housing for farm workers — sometimes known as cottagers — and the word implied not just a home, but also a barn and land. The first US holiday cottages were built in the 1880s in Bar Harbor, Maine and are credited with introducing the word cottage to North America.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cottage cottages

Production levels for cottage cheese are still lower than during the boom seen in the 1970s, which eventually gave way to yogurt.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 7, 2026

An entire cottage industry has popped up to cater to this need.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

Somewhere in the last two decades, the spoiler became a cottage industry.

From Salon ● Oct. 25, 2026

Roslynn Garner-Gatley, 76, lives in a three-bedroom semi-detached cottage in Yealmpton, south Devon, with no gas supply and relies entirely on oil for heating and hot water.

From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026

We were going to Babci’s cottage, the place I had imagined a different sort of life with you.

From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman

The project will feature a brand-new 18-hole course with practice facilities, a performance center, a clubhouse, and private member cottages.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 11, 2026

Around town, lined with winding streets and tan-colored stone cottages, locals speak highly of the American servicemen and women, even if their commander in chief gets negative reviews from some.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

Seizing the opportunity to turn Scotland's notoriously unreliable summer weather into a positive, the couple have begun marketing their cottages as coolcation destinations.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

If you want to go luxe, you can eat or sleep at the Farmhouse Inn, a 6-acre property on River Road that includes 25 rooms and cottages, a pool and spa amid lushly landscaped grounds.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

The wind rose then, taking the brown leaves in a whirl from the trees, and smoke wafted from the chimneys of cottages as fires were fed.

From "Son" by Lois Lowry

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Related Words

• bungalow
• cabin
• chalet
• home
• hut
• lean-to
• lodge
• ranch
• shack
• shanty

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