warehouse

American  

[wair-haus, wair-hauz, -haus] / ˈwɛərˌhaʊs, ˈwɛərˌhaʊz, -ˌhaʊs /

noun

• warehouses
  plural

1. a building, or a part of one, for the storage of goods, merchandise, etc.

2. British. a large retail store.

3. a building, or a part of one, in which wholesalers keep large stocks of merchandise, which they display and sell to retailers.

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verb (used with object)

• warehouses,
  present (3rd person singular)
• warehoused,
  past participle,  past
• warehousing
  present participle

1. to place, deposit, or store in a warehouse.

2. to set aside or accumulate, as for future use.

3. to place in a government or bonded warehouse, to be kept until duties are paid.

4. Informal. to confine (the mentally ill) to large institutions for long-term custodial care.

warehouse British  

noun

1. a place where goods are stored prior to their use, distribution, or sale

2. See bonded warehouse

3. a large commercial, esp wholesale, establishment

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verb

1. (tr) to store or place in a warehouse, esp a bonded warehouse

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• miniwarehouse
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• warehouses
  plural

Participles

• warehousing
  present
• warehoused
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• warehouse
  simple
• warehouses
  simple
• have warehoused
  perfect
• has warehoused
  perfect
• am warehousing
  progressive
• are warehousing
  progressive
• is warehousing
  progressive
• have been warehousing
  perfect progressive
• has been warehousing
  perfect progressive

Past

• warehoused
  simple
• had warehoused
  perfect
• was warehousing
  progressive
• were warehousing
  progressive
• had been warehousing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will warehouse
  simple
• will have warehoused
  perfect
• will be warehousing
  progressive
• will have been warehousing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of warehouse

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at ware ¹, house

Explanation

A warehouse is a place where a company stores things they are going to sell. If you order a book online, it is almost certainly shipped from a warehouse to your house. When a business has to store a lot of items, they often use a warehouse, or a large building, to keep them safe and organized until they're sold or made into a finished product. You can use the word warehouse as a verb, too: "I need to warehouse all these roller skates, because they're not selling as fast as I'd hoped." Warehouse combines ware, or "manufactured goods," and house. In other words, it's a place to house your wares.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

warehouse warehouses warehoused warehousing

In real life it is a warehouse of expensive computers, a power line, a cooling plant and a cable.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026

Those properties reportedly include Parton’s Nashville home, museum, warehouse, and a downtown residence.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 2026

Inside a warehouse on England's south coast, boxes are stacked with pristine Team GB clothing from Paris 2024 and Milan Cortina 2026.

From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026

Earlier this year, Walmart was behind on the automation targets it laid out in 2023, when investors and journalists toured its Brooksville automation test warehouse.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

We left through the lot’s side exit and walked a short distance to a huge warehouse.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

Public sentiment has turned against the expansion of data centres, the large warehouses that store processing power needed for internet activity.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026

Kit can remain in warehouses or athletes' garages without entering a waste stream where it can be counted.

From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026

As more products move through automated warehouses, the Tetris-like task of building pallets should become more precise because software will have more items to choose from, said Montgomery.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

In neighbourhoods such as Ancoats and New Islington, red-brick warehouses still stand as reminders of Manchester's industrial past.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

He stared out the window as the warehouses and lofts passed by.

From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro

“Perishables can’t be warehoused to wait out a price spike, they require diesel-dependent refrigerated trucking constantly,” Lempert said.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

Faced with what he thought were his only choices—being warehoused, or dying—he applied for MAID.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025

Surplus items were warehoused, donated, or thrown away.

From Slate ● Dec. 18, 2024

Washington officials and advocates have been locked in a legal struggle for nearly a decade over how to ensure people with mental illnesses aren’t being warehoused in jails while their court cases stall.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 16, 2023

Thus it is highly probable an order from London might be executed and warehoused in eight days, or sometimes in half that time; a convenience perhaps unenjoyed by any other place of the kind.

From Report of the Knaresbrough Rail-way Committee by Knaresbrough Rail-way Committee

About 392,000 jobs were open across the transportation, warehousing and utilities industries in June, up by 87,000 from a year earlier, according to BLS.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

Key details: More jobs were available in transportation, warehousing, package delivery and even the federal government.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026

Transportation and warehousing activity was up for a second time in three months, buoyed by increases in rail and pipeline transportation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026

Richardson is betting on music at a time when other cities — including Los Angeles — are doubling down on sports, warehousing or data centers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026

If Morgan Stanley could find someone to sell it insurance on its loans, Hubler could eliminate the market risk of warehousing home loans.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis