cubicle
Americannoun
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cubicles
plural
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a small space or compartment partitioned off.
-
a bedroom, especially one of a number of small ones in a divided dormitory, as in English public schools.
noun
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a partially or totally enclosed section of a room, as in a dormitory
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an indoor construction designed to house individual cattle while allowing them free access to silage
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cubicle
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin cubiculum bedroom, equivalent to cub ( āre ) to lie down + -i- -i- + -culum -cle 2
Explanation
A cubicle is a small space partitioned off within a larger space for a particular purpose — usually reading or studying. Or just surfing the Internet. Cubicle comes from the Latin term for a monk's bedroom, cubiculum, which itself is from the word cubare, "to lie down." Back then a monk would probably share it with an illuminated manuscript and a Bible; nowadays the average worker drone has a computer and a bunch of Post-it notes. Still great for sleeping in, though, as long as you don't get caught.
Vocabulary lists containing cubicle
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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:
"He was in a cubicle, he could have been looking at any child, not just mine. I can't get it out my head."
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
I opened it and found myself reading a familiar passage about the protagonist Winston Smith’s cubicle and the slot in the wall nicknamed the “memory hole.”
From Salon ● May 31, 2026
Plus, why Phoenix’s empire of cubicle jobs is fading and how dads are scaling back at the office for kids and housework.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
As those jobs disappeared, lower-skill cubicle gigs helped fill the void.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
Betsie had long since moved into Tante Jans’s little sleeping cubicle where she would be nearer the kitchen and the doorbell.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
In the case of public toilets, such a justification "does not appear to exist" since the cost of building, maintaining and cleaning cubicles and urinals is basically the same, the professor said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 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 brightly coloured cubicles have floor-to-ceiling doors, and some have sinks inside.
From BBC ● May 21, 2026
The rise of artificial intelligence has quickly sparked worries of job losses in America’s office cubicles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026
It was impossible for helpdesk avatars to leave their cubicles, but I found other ways to pass the time.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
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.
