dorm
Americannoun
-
dorms
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dorm
First recorded in 1895–1900; by shortening
Explanation
A dorm — short for dormitory — is a place where college or university students live. You'll find a lot of bunk beds in most dorms. If you go away to college, you’ll probably live in a dormitory — or dorm. It's much more common for students to say dorm because it's shorter and slangier. A dorm is where students live, often with roommates. Dorms have laundry rooms and rec rooms, and it's a place where many friendships are made. Students often study or try to avoid studying in the dorm. It's their home away from home. Dorms are also called residence halls and student residences.
Vocabulary lists containing dorm
Vocabulary from Readings, Unit 2
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Vocabulary from Readings, Unit 2
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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:
Ramirez moved into the New North dorm this week.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
In the western city of Herat, notices posted on the walls of a university and its dorm warned that anyone caught with a smartphone on campus would face "legal action".
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
More than a century later, Cornell apparently still has bears turning up on campus — though university officials would now prefer students not butcher them in the dorm kitchen.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026
He urged Notre Dame to close scores of courses with tiny enrollments and suggested students be required to live on-campus because about 25% of the dorm rooms were vacant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Students left their rooms unlocked, their bikes casually kickstanded outside buildings, their gold earrings unattended on the sink in the dorm bathrooms.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
In a documentary capturing the band's early days, the trainees were berated for posting photos from their dorms on social media.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026
It has sold property, rented out dorms, trimmed a third of its faculty, cut courses and about doubled its endowment withdrawals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
She recalls that a few weeks after she arrived at the home, she first began hearing "whispers about what was going on in the girls' dorms".
From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2026
“The idea here is to face that challenge head on. Students in these dorms are friends not despite of but because of their differences.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 21, 2026
As the only state prison for women, Tutwiler has no way to meaningfully classify and assign women to appropriate dorms.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
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.
