bungalow
Americannoun
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bungalows
plural
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a cottage of one story.
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(in India) a one-storied thatched or tiled house, usually surrounded by a veranda.
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(in the U.S.) a derivation of the Indian house type, popular especially during the first quarter of the 20th century, usually having one and a half stories, a widely bracketed gable roof, and a multi-windowed dormer and frequently built of rustic materials.
noun
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a one-storey house, sometimes with an attic
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(in India) a one-storey house, usually surrounded by a veranda
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bungalow
First recorded in 1670–80, bungalow is from the Hindi word banglā literally, of Bengal
Explanation
A bungalow is a little house. If you’re not ready for the three-story house in the suburbs just yet, you might try living in a bungalow. The word bungalow was originally used to describe the temporary houses set up by English sailors traveling to India to work for the East India Company. These little houses were often just one story high with a thatched roof. Nowadays, the word bungalow can be used to describe any one story house. Think of the little cabin you slept in at summer camp — that’s a kind of bungalow.
Vocabulary lists containing bungalow
There's No Word Like Home
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"Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling
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"Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began" by Art Spiegelman
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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:
The care is mostly left to Sarah and Robert, who move into David’s bungalow, sleeping on the floor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
While the rest of the cast would party on location in Fiji after a day’s work, Cregger, who’d gotten sober, would go back to his bungalow and work on a script.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
Located near the ocean, the first home is a 1,300-square-foot bungalow with two bedrooms and a streamlined gallery kitchen featuring Caesarstone counters and Miele appliances.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
In autumn 2023, Roberts and her husband temporarily moved into a bungalow in Ockbrook, Derbyshire, where they continue to search for a new home.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
The old colonial bungalow with its deep verandah and Doric columns, was surrounded by smaller, older, wooden houses—ancestral homes—that the hotel chain had bought from old families and transplanted in the Heart of Darkness.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
All of them — RVs, makeshift shelters, a few shipping containers and one compound of discarded school bungalows — fall within the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
Three bungalows in Stonehouse Avenue were severely damaged, with two, including Paula's home, losing their roofs completely.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
People have been evacuated after a large fire involving five bungalows in south Wales.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
These newly wealthy-on-paper buyers are checking out bungalows and high-rise apartments with asking prices around $1.2 million to $1.5 million.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 13, 2026
Through the grimy window it was all ugly big sideboards you get in grandparents' bungalows.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
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.
