dormitory

American  

[dawr-mi-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee] / ˈdɔr mɪˌtɔr i, -ˌtoʊr i /

noun

dormitories plural

1. a building, as at a college, containing a number of private or semiprivate rooms for residents, usually along with common bathroom facilities and recreation areas.

2. a room containing a number of beds and serving as communal sleeping quarters, as in an institution, fraternity house, or passenger ship.

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dormitory British  

/ -trɪ, ˈdɔːmɪtərɪ /

noun

1. a large room, esp at a school or institution, containing several beds

2. a building, esp at a college or camp, providing living and sleeping accommodation

3. (modifier) denoting or relating to an area from which most of the residents commute to work (esp in the phrase dormitory suburb )

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• dormitories
  plural

Etymology

Origin of dormitory

1475–85; < Latin dormītōrium bedroom, equivalent to dormī ( re ) to sleep + -tōrium -tory ²

Explanation

A dormitory is a building at a boarding school, college, or university where students live. Many students have roommates in a dormitory, and sometimes those roommates put up really cheesy posters of shirtless guys leaning on cars. The word dormitory is from the Latin dormitorium for "sleeping place," and if you keep going back you get to dormire for "to sleep." A dormitory is where students who live at school sleep — well, it’s where their beds are anyway. Often the first time kids sleep away at school is when they go to college. There are often different dorms for freshman and older students. Dormitories are also called dorms, residence halls, and student residences.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dormitory dormitories

This subterranean dormitory is run by Halyna Mysnyk, a 44-year-old subway employee in a red hat and a navy fleece.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026

Kenya has a long history of school fires - just two years ago at least 21 people died in a dormitory fire in central Kenya.

From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026

The boy's bed was empty when his roommates woke up in a dormitory at the seaside camp in Saint-Brevin-les-Pins.

From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026

Kenya has had a long history of school fires - just two years ago at least 21 people died in a dormitory fire in central Kenya.

From BBC ● May 29, 2026

It was designed to house low-risk inmates in dormitory complexes rather than cell blocks.

From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling

One chimpanzee, Yvan, eventually picked up the crystal and deliberately carried it back to the dormitories.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026

Overcrowding in dormitories and the failure to follow safety guidelines, such as keeping exits clear and windows unlocked, have frequently been blamed for the high number of casualties.

From BBC ● May 29, 2026

The new rules do not apply to notorious "coffin homes", cubicles stacked on top of each other like bunk beds in shabby dormitories.

From Barron's ● May 28, 2026

The facility hosts 85 beds with the capacity to expand to 100 and includes a mix of dormitories, lavatories, a kitchen and laundry facilities.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026

I take a second to shake out my nerves once the elevator arrives at the dormitories.

From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston

Related Words

• bedroom
• dorm
• dorm room