custodian
Americannoun
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custodians
plural
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a person who has custody; keeper; guardian.
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a person entrusted with guarding or maintaining a property; janitor.
noun
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a person who has custody, as of a prisoner, ward, etc
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a guardian or keeper, as of an art collection, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of custodian
1775–85; < Latin custōdi ( a ) watchman ( see custody) + -an
Compare meaning
How does custodian compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
You may know the custodian at your school — the person who's in charge of taking care of the building, in keeping it clean, making sure the heat works, and the roof doesn't leak. The word custodian comes from Latin custos, meaning "guardian," and anyone who looks after something can be a custodian. You might be the custodian of your club's records — you take care of the files and keep them up to date. Or you could be the custodian of the crown jewels — you hold the keys to the treasury and it's your job to make sure the jewels don't get lost or stolen.
Vocabulary lists containing custodian
Frindle
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Unit 1: Ecological Systems
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Awkward
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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:
In John de los Santos’s jam-packed libretto, Macaria, who works as a hospital custodian, meets the mysterious Señora, who is actually Death, on a bus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
Who does the custodian say is the beneficiary?
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 7, 2026
Mireles was not found during that search, but his body was discovered a week later by a custodian working on the county property within a few hundred feet of the jail.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
"It is not the conduct of a custodian of the game, but of one who believes the game is answerable to him."
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
Did the custodian pack everything into a box, drop it in a storage closet, waiting for her parents to return?
From "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher
South Cotswolds MP Roz Savage criticised Sir Ed's leadership ahead of conference, urging the party to rediscover its "insurgent spirit" rather than being the "polite custodians of a system that leaves people feeling powerless".
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
The GunaiKurnai, an Australian Aboriginal nation, are recognized as the traditional custodians of Gippsland and the southern Victorian Alps.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026
The custodians who manage these plans, like Fidelity and Vanguard, will make it easy at age 50 or 60 to sign up for a guaranteed-income plan when the time comes.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026
Last year other Washington school district unions went on strike, including custodians and other staff in Evergreen Public Schools.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
It’s not there anymore,-but the custodians are scrubbing at what’s left of it, their sponges dripping purple paint.
From "Linked" by Gordon Korman
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.
