house
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A structure built or serving as an abode of human beings.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
howsIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhaʊs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Hong Kongonly used in names
An apartment building within a public housing estate.
A structure built or serving as an abode of human beings.
A building in which something is sheltered or located
“They had a large carriage house.”
A building intended to contain a single household, as opposed to an apartment or condominium or building containing these.
uncountable
Size and quality of residential accommodations; housing.
A place of public accommodation or entertainment, especially a public house, an inn, a restaurant, a theatre, or a casino; or the management thereof.
verb
transitive
To keep within a structure or container.
transitive
To admit to residence; to harbor.
To take shelter or lodging; to abide; to lodge.
transitive
To contain or cover mechanical parts.
transitive
To contain one part of an object for the purpose of locating the whole.
canadausslangtransitive
To eat; especially, to scarf down.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (Hong Kong, only used in names) An apartment building within a public housing estate.
Used this way, house is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use house
- “He has a house on Cape Cod.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Structures collectively in which people are housed.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The English royal house that reigned from 1399 to 1461.
The upper house of the British parliament.
Any building where congregations gather for prayer.
A building where prostitutes are available.
The lower legislative house of the United States Congress.
An English dynasty descended from Henry Tudor.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The work of cleaning and running a house.
The work of cleaning and running a house.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.