cottage
Americannoun
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a small house, usually of only one story.
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a small, modest house at a lake, mountain resort, etc., owned or rented as a vacation home.
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one of a group of small, separate houses, as for patients at a hospital, guests at a hotel, or students at a boarding school.
noun
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a small simple house, esp in a rural area
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a small house in the country or at a resort, used for holiday purposes
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one of several housing units, as at a hospital, for accommodating people in groups
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slang a public lavatory
Other Word Forms
- cottaged adjective
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.
Vocabulary lists containing cottage
There's No Word Like Home
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"A Village After Dark" by Kazuo Ishiguro
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Travel
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Kpler’s maps have since blanketed television news broadcasts, social-media feeds and traders’ terminals, turning obscure ships into objects of global fascination and drumming up enormous business for the cottage industry that tracks them.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 3, 2026
Gorka’s path to the White House began in the cottage industry of self-styled terrorism experts that sprang up after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
From Salon • Apr. 22, 2026
In 1970 they moved into Bron Yr Aur cottage, near Machynlleth, Powys, and three months later had written 'Led Zeppelin III'.
From BBC • Apr. 9, 2026
Inside, the dwelling features a traditional beach cottage aesthetic, with bright white walls, exposed wooden beams, and wood flooring—ideal for preventing any sandy messes after a long day on the beach.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 9, 2026
It was the surest sign of her desperation that she wanted to go to Babci’s cottage.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
