landlord
Americannoun
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landlords
plural
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a person or organization that owns and leases apartments to others.
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a person who owns and leases land, buildings, etc.
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a person who owns or runs an inn, lodging house, etc.
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a landowner.
noun
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a man who owns and leases property
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a man who owns or runs a lodging house, pub, etc
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archaic the lord of an estate
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of landlord
before 1000; Middle English; Old English landhlāford. See land, lord
Explanation
If you lease an apartment, the person to whom you pay rent is your landlord. A landlord owns a house, building, or property and rents it out to other people. Many people have landlords they call when their drains are clogged and mail their rent checks to on the first of each month. Business owners often have landlords too, who own their retail or office spaces. Men and women can both be landlords, although you can also call a female landlord a landlady. The concept of a landlord goes back to feudalism — the lord part comes from "Lord of the Manor."
Vocabulary lists containing landlord
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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:
"My landlord used to call me Peter Pan," said 61-year-old Martin James, a former cleaner, farmer and singer who now spends much of his time buying, creating and altering his collectables.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
The landlord has not been here in months, so I assume it was a previous tenant.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
At the open house, around two dozen people were there, and 10 were in line waiting to speak with the landlord about the $7,800-a-month unit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
A Burbank landlord trying to land a trendy ice cream shop tenant got a critical assist from the city that helped seal the deal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
The landlord hovered round for a little, and then prepared to leave them.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Newkirk noted that many landlords won’t allow their tenants to keep pets, reducing the number of potential homes for shelter animals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Rents for the most competitive places can shoot up by hundreds of dollars in a day or two, as landlords seek to seize the moment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Across the country, landlords are facing similar choices.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
They formed relationships with landlords and building superintendents in order to exclusively list an apartment, charge tenants sky-high fees and then split the profit.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
They imagined what it would be like for Imm Janan, their landlords sleepy wife, to discover her hen wearing a lavish robe, as if she'd been crowned queen at midnight.
From "Habibi" by Naomi Shihab Nye
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.
