home economics
Americannoun
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the art and science of home management.
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a college curriculum usually including studies in nutrition, the purchase, preparation, and service of food, interior design, clothing and textiles, child development, family relationships, and household economics.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of home economics
An Americanism dating back to 1895–1900
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.
And appliances that reduced some labor often raised the bar: more frequent washing, more cleaning, more elaborate meals, as University of Chicago home economics professor Hazel Kyrk described in “Economic Problems of the Family.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
He said that as a result, some schools had not been able to offer home economics, computing and technical studies classes to certain year groups.
From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2026
Ellen Swallow Richards is known as the founder of home economics, which to her meant bringing scientific principles to domestic life, lessening household labor and improving public health.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
According to the Craft Industry Alliance, by 2012 only 3.5 million students were enrolled in home economics classes nationwide, a decrease of 38% over the prior decade.
From Salon ● Feb. 4, 2024
Today, my home economics teacher is teaching us how to sew aprons.
From "Betty Before X" by Ilyasah Shabazz and Renée Watson
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