janitor

American  

[jan-i-ter] / ˈdʒæn ɪ tər /

noun

1. a person employed in an apartment house, office building, school, etc., to clean the public areas, remove garbage, and do minor repairs; caretaker.

2. Archaic. a doorkeeper or porter.

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verb (used without object)

1. to be employed as a janitor.

janitor British  

/ ˌdʒænɪˈtɔːrɪəl, ˈdʒænɪtə /

noun

1. the caretaker of a building, esp a school

2. a person employed to clean and maintain a building, esp the public areas in a block of flats or office building; porter

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Other Word Forms

• janitorial adjective
• janitress noun
• underjanitor noun

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:

• custodian vs. janitor

Example Sentences

We should be able to leave the movie and not feel like we missed anything if we didn’t stay until the janitors started to sweep.

From Salon

Charley finds direction when a neighborhood janitor invites him into a pickup game.

From The Wall Street Journal

As cover, he worked as a janitor in a building where many American embassy officials lived—but apparently the KGB didn’t buy it.

From Literature

A museum guard stood outside the bathroom, and janitors cleaned the piece every 15 minutes or so.

From The Wall Street Journal

Marty comes of age in the Hill Valley of 1985, where vandals have shellacked the high school with so much graffiti that the janitors seem to have given up.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• attendant
• custodian
• sitter
• superintendent