cubicle
Americannoun
-
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
-
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:
So, at the Arkansas Flag and Banner store, we decided on a smallish one that could fit in a circular base atop a newsroom cubicle.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
Sara may not care if Scott in the cubicle next to her is using AI to write his reports.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Hunter knows that the title might seem “absurdly grand” for a play in which two single dads sit around a cubicle talking at length about loan paperwork and interest rates.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
"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
Miranda sat in her cubicle and listened as Laxmi kept telling her cousin that there were better men in the world, just waiting to come out of the woodwork.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Instead, shoppers exit curtained-off cubicles to share floor-to-ceiling communal mirrors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
Even if cubicles were slightly more expensive to maintain or consumed more water, this would not necessarily be enough to justify a price difference compared with urinals, she added.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
Patients with more severe illness are in their own cubicles and only medical teams in full protective equipment are allowed in.
From BBC ● Jun. 15, 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
Some cubicles had high slits for windows, but some had none.
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.
