laundry
Americannoun
-
laundries
plural
-
articles of clothing, linens, etc., that have been or are to be washed.
-
a business establishment where clothes, linens, etc., are laundered.
-
a room or area, as in a home or apartment building, reserved for doing the family wash.
noun
-
a place where clothes and linen are washed and ironed
-
the clothes or linen washed and ironed
-
the act of laundering
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of laundry
1350–1400; Middle English lavandrie < Middle French lavanderie. See launder, -y 3
Explanation
Laundry refers to the clothes and bedding that you can wash in your washing machine or at the laundromat. Nothing smells quite as good as clean laundry. When you do your laundry, you wash your dirty clothes, as well as any towels, sheets, and other linens that could use a wash too. A laundry room is the place in an apartment building, business, or dormitory where there are washers and dryers. Sometimes people send their laundry out to a commercial laundry, where they pay someone else to wash their things. Laundry has a Latin root, lavare, "to wash."
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:
She hired her house manager to allow her room for joy and to be fully present with her 6-year-old daughter instead of worrying about whether they were running low on laundry detergent.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
Six in 10 construction-equipment workers and nearly half of laundry and dry-cleaning workers said they used AI for at least one task on the job.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026
Existing space within prisons, such as unused office space, laundry rooms and storage areas, will be converted into cells.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
Families have reported food shortages, problems with drinking water, broken showers and laundry facilities and growing psychological strain among the roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
Penelope was grateful for this insight about socks, for she too struggled with socks that went missing on laundry day, and this despite having an exceptionally well-organized stocking drawer.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
An apology is also expected in Northern Ireland but not until after a public inquiry has been carried out, following a recommendation from a 2021 report on mother and baby institutions, Magdalene laundries and workhouses.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
The job sites expected to be most affected include industrial warehouses, commercial laundries, manufacturing facilities and restaurant kitchens.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2024
In an interview with The Associated Press, Wilson spoke about learning of these Magdalene laundries, her complex thoughts on religion and how Sinéad O’Connor left her mark on the project.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 19, 2024
For example, housing zones for singles need multiple public spaces to enable interactions, from shared laundries to shared meeting spaces.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 20, 2023
Women agents who worked in the laundries passed the word.
From "George Washington, Spymaster" by Thomas B. Allen
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.
