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

Etymology

Origin of cottage

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

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

Esther and Nick Cochrane who run a self-catering holiday cottage business called Beside the Loch have noticed the uptick in visitors who say they have come here for lower more bearable temperatures.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

Read Katie’s full story for a deeper look at how brands are navigating the backlash—and the cottage industry of agencies promising to help.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

The court previously heard Dyson had been living in his car outside Wright's cottage on Sheffield Road in Hoyland, often helping him with various jobs like cutting hedges, mending tractors and driving him to appointments.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

The team revived original furnishings and interior and exterior walls, while constructing a new ADA-compliant Victorian carpenter gothic cottage with stylish board and batten siding, modeled after a 19th-century Sears kit house.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

The crowds were just visible from my cottage, down the street and in front of the mill.

From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff

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

Housing reforms that increase supply, such as allowing smaller lots in new subdivisions, permitting duplexes, townhomes, and backyard cottages on existing lots, and changing zoning laws to allow housing nearer to jobs, are land-use issues.

From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026

New York is one of the top states for family cottages, called camps in the Adirondacks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026

Streets with old cottages give way to newer subdivisions on the south end, where many of the “No Data Center” lawn signs are found.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 2026

Set among tall hemlocks were low, white cottages, not unlike those of Caer Dallben.

From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander

Related Words

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