indoors

American  

[in-dawrz, -dohrz] / ɪnˈdɔrz, -ˈdoʊrz /

adverb

1. in or into a house or building.

   We stayed indoors during the storm.

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indoors British  

/ ˌɪnˈdɔːz /

adverb

1. (postpositive) inside or into a house or other building

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Etymology

Origin of indoors

1780–90; indoor + -s 1

Explanation

If you're indoors, you're inside a house or other building. On the hottest, most sweltering summer days, you might decide to stay indoors where it's cool. During a typical school day, elementary school students spend most of their time indoors, reading, writing, doing math, singing songs, and painting pictures. When they leave the indoors and go outside for recess, you can say they're outdoors. Indoors, first used around 1800 (sometimes attributed to George Washington), comes from indoor, a shortened form of within door.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

indoors

Children who spend more time indoors looking at screens and less time outside are more likely to develop myopia, also known as nearsightedness.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026

A frame exists within a frame, both foursquare and askew, as the great outdoors is experienced from the vantage of the safe indoors.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

Then, during lunch indoors, one made a beeline for her salad.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

Most deaths from heat happen indoors, meaning that "broader access to air-conditioning and other cooling facilities" is particularly important, they emphasised.

From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026

There’s been talk of moving it indoors, building a glass dome over it, or even returning it to Egypt.

From "The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle" by Dan Gutman