dormitory
Americannoun
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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.
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a room containing a number of beds and serving as communal sleeping quarters, as in an institution, fraternity house, or passenger ship.
noun
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a large room, esp at a school or institution, containing several beds
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a building, esp at a college or camp, providing living and sleeping accommodation
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(modifier) denoting or relating to an area from which most of the residents commute to work (esp in the phrase dormitory suburb )
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dormitory
1475–85; < Latin dormītōrium bedroom, equivalent to dormī ( re ) to sleep + -tōrium -tory 2
Explanation
A dormitory is a building at a boarding school, college, or university where students live. Many students have roommates in a dormitory, and sometimes those roommates put up really cheesy posters of shirtless guys leaning on cars. The word dormitory is from the Latin dormitorium for "sleeping place," and if you keep going back you get to dormire for "to sleep." A dormitory is where students who live at school sleep — well, it’s where their beds are anyway. Often the first time kids sleep away at school is when they go to college. There are often different dorms for freshman and older students. Dormitories are also called dorms, residence halls, and student residences.
Vocabulary lists containing dormitory
The Vocabulary of College
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There's No Word Like Home
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Code Talker
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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.
A student in Huanggang told the BBC that he had thought it was "just an ordinary thunderstorm", until he saw "things started flying through the air outside" the dormitory window.
From BBC • Jul. 8, 2026
This subterranean dormitory is run by Halyna Mysnyk, a 44-year-old subway employee in a red hat and a navy fleece.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 3, 2026
Kenya has had a long history of school fires - just two years ago at least 21 people died in a dormitory fire in central Kenya.
From BBC • May 29, 2026
"There are no military facilities, special services, or related services near the dormitory," he added.
From Barron's • May 22, 2026
Around eight o’clock that evening I was watching a movie in the dormitory with the other kids and worrying at the same time.
From "Facing the Lion" by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton and Herman Viola
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.
