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:
So when my roommate shook me awake early on Election Day to vote, I jumped right out of bed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026
The prosecution has presented text messages in which Robinson confessed to planning the murder to his roommate, a transgender person with whom they allege Robinson was in a relationship.
From Barron's ● Nov. 9, 2026
When Kate O’Neil’s roommate moved out, she took the couch with her.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 9, 2026
For a solid few hours, every other sentence between my roommate and I was “I want to throw up” and “Is this real?”
From Slate ● Nov. 4, 2026
Ollie asks me about my job, and I ask him about his studies, and he says he's moved out of his parents' home to live with a roommate closer to the university.
From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse
“I didn’t want my new roommate to have to pitch in for a couch after all of her other expenses from moving in,” said O’Neil, 34, who lives with two roommates in Brooklyn, N.Y.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 9, 2026
Right now, she can still pop by the neighborhood bakery or the coffeeshop where her roommates work without much fuss.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026
You’re married, after all, not roommates with separate checking accounts.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 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
She had no desire to get her roommates stirred up over nothing.
From "Lyddie" by Katherine Paterson
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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.
