Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

showroom

American  
[shoh-room, -room] / ˈʃoʊˌrum, -ˌrʊm /

noun

  • showrooms
    plural
  1. a room used for the display of goods or merchandise.


verb (used without object)

  1. to come into a store to view merchandise and then purchase it from a competitor, usually online, as to get a lower price or wider selection.

    For shoes, I usually showroom at a couple of stores, then buy them cheaper online.

  2. to be used as a place to view rather than buy merchandise.

    No store wants to showroom for a website.

verb (used with object)

  1. to display (merchandise) in a showroom.

  2. to enter a store and view (merchandise) before purchasing it from a competitor, usually online.

  3. to use or encourage people to use (a store) as a place to view rather than buy merchandise.

    The online retailers are showrooming us out of business.

    We’re being showroomed by consumers who browse our stores without buying.

showroom British  
/ ˈʃəʊˌruːm, -ˌrʊm /

noun

  1. a room in which goods, such as cars, are on display

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

Etymology

Origin of showroom

First recorded in 1610–20; show + room

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:

Rescuers raced to 29 sites across the city, including residential buildings, a car showroom, a utilities company and other civilian infrastructure.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 2, 2026

The space, which stretches as far as the eye can see, looks like an office, a showroom, a library and a decaying home all at once.

From Salon May 30, 2026

Firefighters are at the scene of a fire at a car showroom near Garvagh, County Londonderry.

From BBC May 13, 2026

The auction for items from Perry’s estate officially begins June 5, but interested buyers can preview the items from May 18 to May 29 at Heritage Auction’s showroom in Beverly Hills.

From Los Angeles Times May 6, 2026

The waving goddess stood outlined by the smoking metal wing as if she were a model in a showroom of plane wreckage.

From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray

One is inside brightly-lit, air-conditioned showrooms, where customers move slowly between racks of clothes, escaping the worst of the summer heat.

From BBC May 28, 2026

Filosa said the new vehicles it launched last year had been well received and that Stellantis hopes that it can build on that momentum with another 10 models hitting showrooms this year.

From Barron's Apr. 30, 2026

Customers had a hard time getting to showrooms in January because of frozen conditions on the roads.

From MarketWatch Apr. 1, 2026

Scout is planning 100 company-owned showrooms and service centers in the U.S. and Canada to replicate the dealer footprint.

From The Wall Street Journal Mar. 7, 2026

The company owns factories, machinery and showrooms, and employs mechanics, accountants and secretaries, but all these together do not comprise Peugeot.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 12,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training