housemaster

American  

[hous-mas-ter, -mah-ster] / ˈhaʊsˌmæs tər, -ˌmɑ stər /

noun

1. a man who is in charge of a house or a dormitory in a private school for boys.

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housemaster British  

/ ˈhaʊsˌmɪstrɪs, ˈhaʊsˌmɑːstə /

noun

1. a teacher, esp in a boarding school, responsible for the pupils in his house

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Other Word Forms

• housemastership
  noun
• housemistress
  noun

Etymology

Origin of housemaster

First recorded in 1875–80; house + master

Example Sentences

Allegations against Burrows partly related to his time as a housemaster at Danesford School in Congleton, Cheshire, between 1969 and 1971.

From BBC • Mar. 17, 2025

For one thing, he had the good fortune to be assigned to a housemaster, Arthur Goodhart, who was a lax disciplinarian and who thought that music was more important than sports.

From The New Yorker • Nov. 5, 2018

Now back in print, Jane Gardam’s 1976 novel features an awkward teenage girl, Marigold Green, living with her widower father, a housemaster at a boys’ school in the north of England.

From New York Times • Jun. 29, 2016

In 1954, he wrote to my mother and asked her to marry him, inviting her to join him in America as the wife of a Groton housemaster.

From The Guardian • Jan. 19, 2013

The housemaster was the delightful Reverend S. S. Mokitimi, who later became the first African president of the Methodist Church of South Africa.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela