roommate
Americannoun
-
roommates
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of roommate
Explanation
Someone who shares a dorm room or an apartment with you is your roommate. Even if you live in a big house, the people who share it with you — and split the rent — are your roommates. If you live in a dormitory when you go to college, you'll probably have at least one roommate, and even after college it's common to share an apartment or house with roommates. You can call the campers in your cabin at summer camp roommates, though you could also call them cabin mates. The word roommate was a late eighteenth century American English invention.
Vocabulary lists containing roommate
List 1
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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:
Add a roommate instead of getting your own place.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026
Karnofsky was once Amodei's roommate, and is now married to his sister Daniela, who co-founded Anthropic with him.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
Aggrey recalled a time in 2015 when he wasn’t able to afford both the taxes on those options and rent, and his roommate fronted him $200.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
She got a roommate to help with costs, but the two of them sometimes find themselves using food drives for groceries.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026
“Everything is fine,” she replied quickly, not wanting to seem like she couldn't handle the work or that she'd just had a fight with her roommate.
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
The actor received a Teen Choice Award nomination for his work on “New Girl,” which starred Zooey Deschanel and followed a group of roommates navigating relationships and careers in Los Angeles.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026
When his roommates left their dorm each morning, Ma would wander Beijing, sitting in parks and looking at stray cats.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
A company later acquired the home but also didn’t make repairs, pushing Raj and her roommates out.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
The apartment marks the first time Jordan, who previously lived with roommates in Echo Park, has lived alone in Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
He said his roommates at Brown had always predicted that he would “sell out”—loosen up about his faith and adopt their taste for new cars, new clothes, and the other trappings of the upper class.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
