roommate
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of roommate
Explanation
Someone who shares a dorm room or an apartment with you is your roommate. Even if you live in a big house, the people who share it with you — and split the rent — are your roommates. If you live in a dormitory when you go to college, you'll probably have at least one roommate, and even after college it's common to share an apartment or house with roommates. You can call the campers in your cabin at summer camp roommates, though you could also call them cabin mates. The word roommate was a late eighteenth century American English invention.
Vocabulary lists containing roommate
List 1
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List 9
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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.
Roommate: you weren't the one who did it right????
From BBC • Sep. 16, 2025
Harlan Cohen, an advice columnist and author of the book The Naked Roommate, says flatmates don’t necessarily need to be friends – but that those “who want to get along, will want to get along”.
From The Guardian • Nov. 26, 2019
Q. Roommate peed on my couch: I live in a house with four roommates: three dudes and, including me, two women.
From Slate • Apr. 11, 2018
Vertigo Entertainment Now, finally The Roommate has a logical successor, and some company in the genre of modern obsession.
From The Verge • Nov. 7, 2017
On this page The Author would keep green his Name as the Roommate, Playmate and Companion of Early Days.
From Old Farm Fairies: A Summer Campaign In Brownieland Against King Cobweaver's Pixies by McCook, Henry Christopher
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.
