roommate
Americannoun
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:
Imagine this conversation with your spouse or roommate: “Dude, what is that smell? It stinks like burning diapers. Did you forget to pay the air?”
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
"I just asked him in person if what he said was true the night before, and he said it was," Robinson's roommate Lance Twiggs told investigators in the taped interview.
From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026
In the very first “Doonesbury” comic strip, a young man wearing a football helmet sits in a dorm, waiting to meet his new roommate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
The police acted on a description given to police in 2010 by the roommate of Costello, after she had a run-in with a client.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 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
Many homeowners have sold up, cashed out and fled the state; renters who've stayed are working two to three jobs or living with roommates.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
They first met in 2023 -- initially just as roommates -- before beginning a romantic relationship "two or three months" after Robinson moved in, Twiggs told investigators.
From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026
It’s like, “Oh we’re all doing this same thing, we’re all roommates, we’re all in school together, we’re all whatever.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
My need to pack up and leave was usually caused by souring relationships with roommates or increasing rents.
From MarketWatch ● May 29, 2026
Some of them came up from Tubman Quadrangle with their roommates and rope for Double Dutch.
From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
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.
