room
Americannoun
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rooms
plural
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a portion of space within a building or other structure, separated by walls or partitions from other parts.
a dining room.
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rooms, lodgings or quarters, as in a house or building.
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the persons present in a room.
The whole room laughed.
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space or extent of space occupied by or available for something.
The desk takes up too much room.
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opportunity or scope for something.
room for improvement; room for doubt.
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status or a station in life considered as a place.
He fought for room at the top.
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capacity.
Her brain had no room for trivia.
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Mining. a working area cut between pillars.
verb (used without object)
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rooms,
present (3rd person singular)
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roomed,
past participle, past
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rooming
present participle
noun
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space or extent, esp unoccupied or unobstructed space for a particular purpose
is there room to pass?
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an area within a building enclosed by a floor, a ceiling, and walls or partitions
sitting room
dining room
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(functioning as singular or plural) the people present in a room
the whole room was laughing
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(foll by for) opportunity or scope
room for manoeuvre
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(plural) a part of a house, hotel, etc, that is rented out as separate accommodation; lodgings
she got rooms in town
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a euphemistic word for lavatory
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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roomsimple
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roomssimple
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have roomedperfect
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has roomedperfect
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am roomingprogressive
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are roomingprogressive
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is roomingprogressive
-
have been roomingperfect progressive
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has been roomingperfect progressive
Past
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roomedsimple
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had roomedperfect
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was roomingprogressive
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were roomingprogressive
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had been roomingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of room
First recorded before 900; Middle English roum(e), Old English rūm; cognate with Dutch ruim, German Raum
Explanation
A room is a space in a house or building that's usually enclosed with walls. Your favorite room in your house might be the den where the TV is, or the cozy kitchen. There's the physical area called a room, and then there's the concept of room, which can mean "space" or "opportunity." If you have room in your life for a puppy, it means you can make the time to walk it and feed it and play with it. If you have room in your bedroom for a puppy, it means you have the physical space you need for a dog bed.
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:
“We’re all sharks in the room, but we’re all helping each other. ... It’s time for everybody to put on them big-boy boots.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026
“The chef’s kitchen with eat-in dining nook and wood-burning fireplace connects to a cozy family room and IPE-clad terrace overlooking a tranquil reflection pond,” the listing notes.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 21, 2026
It is on display in Lady Grey's study, a room open to the public for guided tours which features a number of figures from the Northern Ireland peace process.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
It gives them more room to raise rates to fight inflation and space to cut them during a downturn to stimulate growth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
He checks his watch and goes to the living room.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
In living rooms, hotel conference centers, law offices and private clubs across the city, they are gaming out who could lead Cuba’s nine million people.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
Philippe now lives in the house with his family, and although the concrete exterior remains intact, the rooms and the courtyard have been remodeled around their own aesthetics and routines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026
Nationally, 59.1% of rooms had been booked for the upcoming year in June 2026, compared with 70.4% in 2024.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
A steady supply of power is vital for the air conditioners maintaining the right temperature inside Chizay's storage rooms.
From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026
In front of us down the stairs came the people from Tante Jans’s rooms.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Joshua, who roomed with Blankfein’s son Alexander, launched Vostu, a social networking site for Latin American users.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
"I roomed with 'Thommo' for years, and I've seen him and spent time with him since, and he's genuinely struggling," says Moody.
From BBC ● Mar. 2, 2026
Malabuyo roomed with the freshman during the last three meets and considers McGowan one of her closest teammates.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2025
Schallock, then 27, roomed with Berra and was tasked with picking up Berra’s daily delivery of “funnies” as they called them.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 25, 2024
Settling in Berlin, she roomed with an elderly couple who spoke only German, devoted herself to an intensive study of the language, and began vocal studies with Kurt Johnen, one of the city’s best-known teachers.
From "The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights" by Russell Freedman
Moreover, it’s not just young people fresh out of school who are rooming with others to keep their housing costs low.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 4, 2025
Back in the fall of 2007, Knox was a 20-year-old student from Seattle, studying in Perugia and rooming with a young British woman named Meredith Kercher.
From Salon ● Apr. 14, 2025
She lived in the same run-down area of seedy rooming houses as Raffo, whom she had befriended on the streets.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 30, 2023
“Bunker Hill is old town, lost town, shabby town, crook town,” the noir master Raymond Chandler wrote, long before the neighborhood’s old rooming houses were demolished.
From New York Times ● May 17, 2023
Joe gave the same alibi Rose did: on the night of May 21, 1921, they had been together in Pawnee, seventeen miles southwest of Gray Horse, and had stopped at a rooming house.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
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.
