cubicle

American  

[kyoo-bi-kuhl] / ˈkju bɪ kəl /

noun

• cubicles
  plural

1. a small space or compartment partitioned off.

2. carrel.

3. a bedroom, especially one of a number of small ones in a divided dormitory, as in English public schools.

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cubicle British  

/ ˈkjuːbɪkəl /

noun

1. a partially or totally enclosed section of a room, as in a dormitory

2. an indoor construction designed to house individual cattle while allowing them free access to silage

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cubicles
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of cubicle

1400–50; late Middle English < Latin cubiculum bedroom, equivalent to cub ( āre ) to lie down + -i- -i- + -culum -cle ²

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Explanation

A cubicle is a small space partitioned off within a larger space for a particular purpose — usually reading or studying. Or just surfing the Internet. Cubicle comes from the Latin term for a monk's bedroom, cubiculum, which itself is from the word cubare, "to lie down." Back then a monk would probably share it with an illuminated manuscript and a Bible; nowadays the average worker drone has a computer and a bunch of Post-it notes. Still great for sleeping in, though, as long as you don't get caught.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cubicle cubicles

Loktev’s friends had become mine too — their personalities, politics and future prospects as important to my understanding of the world as if they worked in the next cubicle or lived on the next block.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026

As evidence, Karen pulls out a decades-old photo of my newsroom cubicle with its remarkable mounds of documents, folders, newspapers and books on every horizontal surface.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026

"He was in a cubicle, he could have been looking at any child, not just mine. I can't get it out my head."

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

I opened it and found myself reading a familiar passage about the protagonist Winston Smith’s cubicle and the slot in the wall nicknamed the “memory hole.”

From Salon ● May 31, 2026

I move down the row to the fourth cubicle.

From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon

The companies outfitted the event with cubicles, vintage computers and plenty of Post-its.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

Even if cubicles were slightly more expensive to maintain or consumed more water, this would not necessarily be enough to justify a price difference compared with urinals, she added.

From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026

Patients with more severe illness are in their own cubicles and only medical teams in full protective equipment are allowed in.

From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026

Stasevska, 41, walks from the ornate foyer of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with its emerald green carpets and gleaming chandeliers, to the more ordinary hallways and cubicles of L.A.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2026

Several of the cubicles around me were unoccupied, awaiting the arrival of other new indents.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

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Related Words

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