laundry
Americannoun
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laundries
plural
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articles of clothing, linens, etc., that have been or are to be washed.
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a business establishment where clothes, linens, etc., are laundered.
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a room or area, as in a home or apartment building, reserved for doing the family wash.
noun
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a place where clothes and linen are washed and ironed
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the clothes or linen washed and ironed
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the act of laundering
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of laundry
1350–1400; Middle English lavandrie < Middle French lavanderie. See launder, -y 3
Explanation
Laundry refers to the clothes and bedding that you can wash in your washing machine or at the laundromat. Nothing smells quite as good as clean laundry. When you do your laundry, you wash your dirty clothes, as well as any towels, sheets, and other linens that could use a wash too. A laundry room is the place in an apartment building, business, or dormitory where there are washers and dryers. Sometimes people send their laundry out to a commercial laundry, where they pay someone else to wash their things. Laundry has a Latin root, lavare, "to wash."
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.
See Examples For:
They’ve been using it as a kind of laundry chute.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
A marmoset monkey has been rescued by animal welfare officers after being found abandoned inside a laundry bag on a bus in north-west London.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
The garden level holds a media room, guest room, laundry room and a cedar-lined 636-bottle wine cellar carved from one of the home’s original eccentricities: a secret tunnel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
I don’t care if it contains added MSG and holds a laundry list of seasonings you can’t pronounce.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
“I want to get started on laundry, and I have a million people to call. Lawyers and stuff. You understand, right?”
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
An apology is also expected in Northern Ireland but not until after a public inquiry has been carried out, following a recommendation from a 2021 report on mother and baby institutions, Magdalene laundries and workhouses.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
The job sites expected to be most affected include industrial warehouses, commercial laundries, manufacturing facilities and restaurant kitchens.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2024
The film explores Ireland’s Magdalene laundries, Catholic-run institutions from the 18th to the late 20th century intended to reform those deemed “fallen women.”
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 14, 2024
For example, housing zones for singles need multiple public spaces to enable interactions, from shared laundries to shared meeting spaces.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 20, 2023
There were groceries and herbal shops, clothing shops and laundries, halls that housed the brotherhoods or the district associations or the offices of family clans.
From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep
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.
