janitor
Americannoun
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a person employed in an apartment house, office building, school, etc., to clean the public areas, remove garbage, and do minor repairs; caretaker.
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Archaic. a doorkeeper or porter.
verb (used without object)
noun
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the caretaker of a building, esp a school
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a person employed to clean and maintain a building, esp the public areas in a block of flats or office building; porter
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of janitor
First recorded in 1575–85; from Latin jānitor “doorkeeper,” equivalent to jāni- (combining form of jānus “doorway, covered passage”) + -tor -tor
Compare meaning
How does janitor compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A janitor is someone whose job is cleaning and maintaining a building. If your school always looks clean and orderly, be sure to thank the janitor. Another name for a janitor is a custodian, or in Britain, a caretaker. This job involves cleaning and caring for a school, hospital, apartment building, or workplace. Janitors may be responsible for cleaning bathrooms, hallways, and other common areas. Sometimes janitors will also sweep sidewalks, shovel snow, or do other outdoor maintenance. In the 16th century, a janitor was a "doorkeeper," from the Latin ianitor, "doorkeeper or porter," and the root ianua, "door."
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.
The company hires people for roles like janitor, maintenance worker and in other trades.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 22, 2026
The son of parents who fled Sierra Leone's civil war in the 1990s, Tiafoe used to sleep on the floor at a plush Maryland tennis centre where his father was a janitor.
From BBC • Jan. 24, 2026
Once freed from slavery, Washington toiled in coal mines, worked as a janitor in exchange for formal education and became a great American orator and leader of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
From Salon • Oct. 27, 2025
Mulroney grew up in the U.K., the daughter of a factory worker and a janitor.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 4, 2025
“What does the janitor guy have to do with the plane?” he asked.
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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.
