house
noun
a building in which people live; residence for human beings.
house
1 American
[haus, hauz]
/ haʊs, haʊz /
noun
-
houses
plural
-
a building in which people live; residence for human beings.
-
a household.
-
(often initial capital letter) a family, including ancestors and descendants.
the great houses of France; the House of Hapsburg.
-
a building for any purpose.
a house of worship.
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a theater, concert hall, or auditorium.
a vaudeville house.
-
the audience of a theater or the like.
-
a place of shelter for an animal, bird, etc. (usually used in combination).
a doghouse.
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the building in which a legislative or official deliberative body meets.
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House, the body itself, especially of a bicameral legislature.
the House of Representatives.
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a quorum of such a body.
-
(often initial capital letter) a commercial establishment; business firm.
the House of Rothschild; a publishing house.
-
a gambling casino.
-
the management of a commercial establishment or of a gambling casino.
rules of the house.
-
an advisory or deliberative group, especially in church or college affairs.
-
a college in an English-type university.
-
a residential hall in a college or school; dormitory.
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the members or residents of any such residential hall.
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Informal. a brothel; whorehouse.
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British. a variety of lotto or bingo played with paper and pencil, especially by soldiers as a gambling game.
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Also called parish. Curling. the area enclosed by a circle 12 or 14 feet (3.7 or 4.2 meters) in diameter at each end of the rink, having the tee in the center.
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Nautical. any enclosed shelter above the weather deck of a vessel.
bridge house; deck house.
-
Astrology. one of the 12 divisions of the celestial sphere, numbered counterclockwise from the point of the eastern horizon.
verb (used with object)
-
houses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
housed,
past participle, past
-
housing
present participle
-
to put or receive into a house, dwelling, or living quarters.
More than 200 students were housed in the dormitory.
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to give shelter to; harbor; lodge.
to house flood victims in schools.
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to provide with a place to work, study, or the like.
This building houses our executive staff.
-
to provide storage space for; be a receptacle for or repository of.
The library houses 600,000 books.
-
to remove from exposure; put in a safe place.
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Nautical.
-
to stow securely.
-
to lower (an upper mast) and make secure, as alongside the lower mast.
-
to heave (an anchor) home.
-
-
Carpentry.
-
to fit the end or edge of (a board or the like) into a notch, hole, or groove.
-
to form (a joint) between two pieces of wood by fitting the end or edge of one into a dado of the other.
-
verb (used without object)
-
houses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
housed,
past participle, past
-
housing
present participle
adjective
-
of, relating to, or noting a house.
-
for or suitable for a house.
house paint.
-
served by a restaurant as its customary brand.
the house wine.
-
of or being a product made by or for a specific retailer and often sold under the store's own label.
You'll save money on the radio if you buy the house brand.
idioms
-
clean house. clean.
-
on the house, as a gift from the management; free.
Tonight the drinks are on the house.
-
put / set one's house in order,
-
to settle one's affairs.
-
to improve one's behavior or correct one's faults.
It is easy to criticize others, but it would be better to put one's own house in order first.
-
-
keep house, to maintain a home; manage a household.
-
dress the house,
-
to fill a theater with many people admitted on free passes; paper the house.
-
to arrange or space the seating of patrons in such a way as to make an audience appear larger or a theater or nightclub more crowded than it actually is.
-
-
bring down the house, to call forth vigorous applause from an audience; be highly successful.
The children's performances brought down the house.
-
like a house on fire / afire, very quickly; with energy or enthusiasm.
The new product took off like a house on fire.
House
2
American
[haus]
/ haʊs /
noun
-
Edward Mandell Colonel House, 1858–1938, U.S. diplomat.
-
Son Eddie James House, Jr., 1902–88, U.S. blues singer and guitarist.
house
1
British
noun
-
-
a building used as a home; dwelling
-
( as modifier )
house dog
-
-
the people present in a house, esp its usual occupants
-
-
a building used for some specific purpose
-
( in combination )
a schoolhouse
-
-
(often capital) a family line including ancestors and relatives, esp a noble one
the House of York
-
-
a commercial company; firm
a publishing house
-
( as modifier )
house style
a house journal
-
-
an official deliberative or legislative body, such as one chamber of a bicameral legislature
-
a quorum in such a body (esp in the phrase make a house )
-
a dwelling for a religious community
-
astrology any of the 12 divisions of the zodiac See also planet
-
-
any of several divisions, esp residential, of a large school
-
( as modifier )
house spirit
-
-
-
a hotel, restaurant, bar, inn, club, etc, or the management of such an establishment
-
( as modifier )
house rules
-
( in combination )
steakhouse
-
-
(modifier) (of wine) sold unnamed by a restaurant, at a lower price than wines specified on the wine list
the house red
-
the audience in a theatre or cinema
-
an informal word for brothel
-
a hall in which an official deliberative or legislative body meets
-
See full house
-
curling the 12-foot target circle around the tee
-
nautical any structure or shelter on the weather deck of a vessel
-
theatre to win great applause
-
an emphatic form of home
-
to be always ready to provide hospitality
-
informal very well, quickly, or intensely
-
(usually of drinks) paid for by the management of the hotel, bar, etc
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to settle or organize one's affairs
-
very secure
verb
-
(tr) to provide with or serve as accommodation
-
to give or receive shelter or lodging
-
(tr) to contain or cover, esp in order to protect
-
(tr) to fit (a piece of wood) into a mortise, joint, etc
-
(tr) nautical
-
to secure or stow
-
to secure (a topmast)
-
to secure and stow (an anchor)
-
House
2
British
/ haʊs /
noun
-
See House of Commons
-
informal the Stock Exchange
house
More Idioms
Synonym Usage
House, dwelling, residence, home are terms applied to a place to live in. Dwelling is now chiefly poetic, or used in legal or technical contexts, as in a lease or in the phrase multiple dwelling. Residence is characteristic of formal usage and often implies size and elegance of structure and surroundings: the private residence of the king. These two terms and house have always had reference to the structure to be lived in. Home has recently taken on this meaning and become practically equivalent to house, the new meaning tending to crowd out the older connotations of family ties and domestic comfort. See also hotel.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
housesimple
-
housessimple
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have housedperfect
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has housedperfect
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am housingprogressive
-
are housingprogressive
-
is housingprogressive
-
have been housingperfect progressive
-
has been housingperfect progressive
Past
-
housedsimple
-
had housedperfect
-
was housingprogressive
-
were housingprogressive
-
had been housingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of house
First recorded before 900; Middle English noun h(o)us, hous(s)e, Old English hūs; cognate with Dutch huis, Low German huus, Old Norse hūs, German Haus, Gothic -hūs (in gudhūs “temple”); the verb is derivative of the noun
Explanation
A house is a building where you might live alone or it could be a multi-family house that you share with other families. If you live in an apartment building, that's "home," but it's not a house. You can also use house to refer to groups of people. The House of Tudor is an English royal family. Governing bodies can be houses: the Houses of Parliament, in Britain, or the House of Representatives, in the US. In a theater, the house is the audience. When house is a verb, meaning to provide a house for, as in “where are you going to house all your guests?” — it’s pronounced with a -z-, rather than an -s-.
Vocabulary lists containing house
Theater - Middle School
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Theater - High School
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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.
See Examples For:
She told the trial of billowing black smoke rising up the stairs while she was in the house with her partner and her daughter.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
Teymouri said the children kept in the Arcadia home were isolated from society, almost never leaving the house.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
Sister, the oldest of the Whitby children, is trying to keep this rule in mind as she heads to her mother’s house nine years after the tragedy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
I own one — not a Tesla— but I own one, and I had a Tesla Powerwall in my house.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026
The house looks just like it did in my Flash.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
In essence, she was a press secretary, just not in the White House.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
But speaking to reporters as he left the White House on Friday, the US president said he had a good relationship with his Ukrainian counterpart.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
The push was backed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and dozens of other federal, state and local elected officials.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
He added that he would leave the decision to her, according to CNN, but said they would speak when he returned to the White House.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026
Just some guy they probably wouldn’t even be friends with if I hadn’t been put in stupid Allen House.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
The facility houses about 1,044 inmates, according to its website, a significantly smaller population than the one at Combs' previous facility, Fort Dix, of more than 4,200 inmates across two campuses.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
"Here in Palangkaraya City, we should be assisted not only in the form of rice or basic food supplies... there should be safe houses from haze."
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
Pantglas Junior School and surrounding houses in the village near Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales, were catastrophically engulfed in coal slurry after the colliery spoil tip collapsed on 21 October 1966.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
James will be hosting open houses on as many Saturdays as she can, posting updates on the Griffith merry-go-round project Instagram page.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026
About a year ago, a group of us started holding bonfires at dedicated clearings in the woods, nowhere near enough to houses for parents to come nosing around our flickering flames.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Marinello said thieves are beginning to use artificial intelligence to identify museums with hefty holdings of gold or those housed in smaller, historic buildings that might be easier to breach.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
This provided clues about the shape of the space that once housed the dinosaur's brain.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026
The home comes with plenty of Hollywood history, having housed a string of famous residents over the years.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
Time Team's Prof Carenza Lewis said they had found traces of square features where it is thought people were housed, which "haven't been excavated before, anywhere".
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
“May I ask you something?” he says as she looks at a collection of detailed figurines waiting patiently amongst curls of wood to be housed in their proper clocks.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
Among them was a 2015 special that saw hundreds of volunteers work alongside Knowles, Prince William and Prince Harry to build housing for veterans in Manchester.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. warned that a key risk is not building enough during a period of softening housing markets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
She covered how such moves help families solve the childcare crisis, and how they affect the U.S. housing market.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
Some of those living in a new-build housing estate nearby are concerned about the project, including James George, 32, who said he was worried about the impact on the environment and his home.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
“With giant ogres feeding and housing them, they had no need to think or act. They devolved.”
From "Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat" by Johnny Marciano and Emily Chenoweth
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
