dormitory

[dawr-mi-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee]

noun

plural

dormitories 

1. a building, as at a college, containing a number of private or semiprivate rooms for residents, usually along with common bathroom facilities and recreation areas.

2. a room containing a number of beds and serving as communal sleeping quarters, as in an institution, fraternity house, or passenger ship.

dormitory

/ -trɪ, ˈdɔːmɪtərɪ /

noun

1. a large room, esp at a school or institution, containing several beds

2. a building, esp at a college or camp, providing living and sleeping accommodation

3. (modifier) denoting or relating to an area from which most of the residents commute to work (esp in the phrase dormitory suburb )

Word History and Origins

Origin of dormitory¹

1475–85; < Latin dormītōrium bedroom, equivalent to dormī ( re ) to sleep + -tōrium -tory ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of dormitory¹

C15: from Latin dormītōrium, from dormīre to sleep

Example Sentences

For now, he said, families are crowded into a block of 20 buildings with one-room student dormitories roughly six miles away from the camp.

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Voters got an early display of that work ethic when Takaichi slept in a parliamentary dormitory and got to her office to begin work at 3 a.m. on Nov. 7.

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She missed the long march from the dormitories to the dining hall every morning, during which the girls bellowed the school song with great feeling and even greater volume, in order to wake themselves up.

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"Because then they'd separate you - send one of you to a different dormitory, or even to another institution."

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The couple asked to be placed in the same dormitory.

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Related Words

• bedroom 
• dorm 
• dorm room www.thesaurus.com