warehouse

American  

[wair-hous, wair-houz, -hous] / ˈwɛərˌhaʊs, ˈwɛərˌhaʊz, -ˌhaʊs /

noun

warehouses plural

1. a building, or a part of one, for the storage of goods, merchandise, etc.

2. British. a large retail store.

3. a building, or a part of one, in which wholesalers keep large stocks of merchandise, which they display and sell to retailers.

---

verb (used with object)

warehouses, present (3rd person singular) warehoused, past participle, past warehousing present participle

1. to place, deposit, or store in a warehouse.

2. to set aside or accumulate, as for future use.

3. to place in a government or bonded warehouse, to be kept until duties are paid.

4. Informal. to confine (the mentally ill) to large institutions for long-term custodial care.

warehouse British  

noun

1. a place where goods are stored prior to their use, distribution, or sale

2. See bonded warehouse

3. a large commercial, esp wholesale, establishment

---

verb

1. (tr) to store or place in a warehouse, esp a bonded warehouse

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• miniwarehouse
  noun

Inflected Forms

noun

• warehouses
  plural

Conjugated Forms

Present

• has warehoused
  perfect 3rd person singular
• are warehousing
  progressive
• have warehoused
  perfect
• have been warehousing
  perfect progressive
• is warehousing
  progressive 3rd person singular
• warehousing
  participle
• am warehousing
  progressive 1st person singular
• has been warehousing
  perfect progressive 3rd person singular
• warehouses
  singular 3rd person

Past

• had warehoused
  perfect
• were warehousing
  progressive plural
• warehoused
  participle
• was warehousing
  progressive singular
• had been warehousing
  perfect progressive
• warehoused
  simple

Future

• will warehouse
  simple
• will have warehoused
  perfect
• will be warehousing
  progressive
• will have been warehousing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of warehouse

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at ware ¹, house

Explanation

A warehouse is a place where a company stores things they are going to sell. If you order a book online, it is almost certainly shipped from a warehouse to your house. When a business has to store a lot of items, they often use a warehouse, or a large building, to keep them safe and organized until they're sold or made into a finished product. You can use the word warehouse as a verb, too: "I need to warehouse all these roller skates, because they're not selling as fast as I'd hoped." Warehouse combines ware, or "manufactured goods," and house. In other words, it's a place to house your wares.

Example Sentences

However, investors shouldn’t count out Costco forever, given the company’s strong same-store sales–evidence of its expanding market share–and the increasing popularity of warehouse clubs in general.

From Barron's • Jun. 8, 2026

At a Frito-Lay warehouse in Phoenix, workers load Cheetos and Doritos onto Gatik trucks daily, bound for dozens of locations.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 8, 2026

Hanif Hall, a former warehouse worker who has been unemployed for around two years, is among those on the scheme.

From BBC • Jun. 7, 2026

The Muslim house of worship was a Pakistani Sunday school operating out of a warehouse in Lorton, Virginia.

From Salon • Jun. 1, 2026

We stole past, keeping well out of the way of the film crew, then went by even more sets before we came out the other end of the warehouse.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu