house
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house¹
- /haʊ̯s/ US, UK
- [haʊ̯s] US, UK
- /haws/ British, Southern, Standard
- /hæʊ̯s/
- [hæʊ̯s]
- /hɐʊ̯s/
- [hɐʊ̯s]
- /hɜʊ̯s/
- [hɜʊ̯s]
- /hʌʊ̯s/
- [hʌʊ̯s]
- /həʊ̯s/
- [həʊ̯s]
- /haːs/
- /hʌʉ̯s/ Scotland
- [hʌʉ̯s] Scotland
- /hɛʊ̯s/ Ireland
- [hɛʊ̯s] Ireland
- /hɐʏ̯s/ Ireland, Ulster
- [hɐʏ̯s] Ireland, Ulster
- /hɐʊ̯s/ Cork, Ireland, Munster
- [hɐʊ̯s] Cork, Ireland, Munster
- /huːs/ Geordie
- [huːs] Geordie
Rhymes with -aʊs
Where it comes from
From Middle English hous, hus, from Old English hūs (“dwelling, shelter, house”), from Proto-West Germanic *hūs, from Proto-Germanic *hūsą (“house”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kews-, from *(s)kewH- (“to cover, hide”). More at hose.
Eclipsed non-native Middle English mees, meson, measoun (“house”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman mes, mies, meis, maisun (“house”). The uncommon plural form housen is from Middle English husen, housen. (The Old English nominative plural was simply hūs.)
Cognates
Cognate with Scots hoose, oos (“house”), Yola heouse, houze, howze (“house”), North Frisian hüs (“house”), Saterland Frisian Huus, Húus (“house”), West Frisian hûs (“house”), Alemannic German hous, hus, husch, hüs, hüüsch (“house”), Bavarian, Cimbrian, Mòcheno haus (“house”), Central Franconian Haus, Hous, Huus (“home”), Dutch huis (“house”), Dutch Low Saxon hoes, huus (“house”), German Haus, Hauß (“house”), German Low German Huus (“house”), Limburgish hoes, Huus (“house”), Luxembourgish Haus (“house”), Vilamovian haojs, haus, hoüz (“house”), Yiddish הויז (hoyz, “house”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish hus (“house”), Elfdalian aus (“house”), Faroese and Icelandic hús (“house”), Crimean Gothic hus (“house”); also Cornish kudha (“to conceal, hide”), Welsh cuddio (“to hide”), Latin cutis (“human skin; hide, leather”), Ancient Greek κεύθω (keúthō, “to cover, hide”), Tocharian A kāc (“hide, skin”), Sanskrit स्कुनाति (skunāti, “to cover”).
noun houses · housen · hice · hoose · houss
- A structure built or serving as an abode of human beings. This is my house and my family's ancestral home.
- An apartment building within a public housing estate.
- A container; a thing which houses another. The purposes of food are to promote growth, to supply force and heat, and to furnish material to repair the waste which is constantly taking place in the body. Every breath, every thought, every motion, wears out some portion of the delicate and wonderful house in which we live.
- Size and quality of residential accommodations; housing. Those homeowners who bought too much house, or borrowed against inflated values are now going to be liable for their own poor decisions.
- A building intended to contain a single household, as opposed to an apartment or condominium or building containing these.
- The people who live in a house; a household. one that feared God with all his house
- A building used for something other than a residence (typically with qualifying word). The former carriage house had been made over into a guest house.
-
A place of business; a company or organisation, especially a printing press, a publishing company, or a couturier.
A small publishing house would have a contract with an independent fulfillment house.
Similar: shop
-
A place of public accommodation or entertainment, especially a public house, an inn, a restaurant, a theatre, or a casino; or the management thereof.
One more, sir, then I'll have to stop serving you – rules of the house, I'm afraid.
Similar: shop
- A workhouse. To this the pauper replied that he did not want that, and that rather than be sent to the house he would look out for work.
- The audience for a live theatrical or similar performance. After her swan-song, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
- A building where a deliberative assembly meets; whence the assembly itself, particularly a component of a legislature. The petition was so ridiculous that the house rejected it after minimal debate.
- A dynasty; a family with its ancestors and descendants, especially a royal or noble one. A curse lay upon the House of Atreus.
- A place of rest or repose. Like a pestilence, it doth infect / The houses of the brain.
- A grouping of schoolchildren for the purposes of competition in sports and other activities. I was a member of Spenser house when I was at school.
- An animal's shelter or den, or the shell of an animal such as a snail, used for protection.
- One of the twelve divisions of an astrological chart. Since there was a limited number of planets, houses and signs of the zodiac, the astrologers tended to reduce human potentialities to a set of fixed types and to postulate only a limited number of possible variations.
- The fourth Lenormand card.
- A square on a chessboard, regarded as the proper place of a piece.
- The four concentric circles where points are scored on the ice.
- Lotto; bingo.
- A children's game in which the players pretend to be members of a household. As the babysitter, Emma always acted as the mother whenever the kids demanded to play house.
- A small stand of trees in a swamp.
- A set of cells in a sudoku puzzle which must contain each digit exactly once, such as a row, column, or 3×3 box.
- The end zone.
house²
- /haʊz/
Sounds like how's · Rhymes with -aʊs, -aʊz
Where it comes from
From Middle English housen, from Old English hūsian, from Proto-Germanic *hūsōną (“to house, live, dwell”), from the noun (see above). Compare Dutch huizen (“to live, dwell, reside”), German Low German husen (“to live, dwell, reside”), German hausen (“to live, dwell, reside”), Norwegian Nynorsk husa (“to house”), Faroese húsa (“to house”), Icelandic húsa (“to shelter, house”).
verb houses · housing · housed
-
To keep within a structure or container.
The car is housed in the garage.
Similar: store
-
To admit to residence; to harbor.
Palladius wished him [...] to house all the Helots.
Similar: accommodate, harbor, harbour, host, put up
- To take shelter or lodging; to abide; to lodge. You shall not house with me.
- To dwell within one of the twelve astrological houses. Where Saturn houses.
-
To contain or cover mechanical parts.
Similar: enclose
- To contain one part of an object for the purpose of locating the whole. The joists were housed into the side walls, rather than being hung from them.
- To drive to a shelter. Euen now we hous'd him in the Abbey heere
- To deposit and cover, as in the grave. Oh! can your counsel his despair defer , Who now is housed in his sepulchre
- To stow in a safe place; to take down and make safe. to house the upper spars
- To eat; especially, to scarf down. All you wanna do is drink a fifth, house a lasagna, and hide in a dumpster until that baby stops crying.
house³
- /haʊs/
Where it comes from
Probably from The Warehouse, a nightclub in Chicago, Illinois, USA, where the music became popular around 1985.
noun
- House music. […] their music is influenced as much by Roxy Music and the Ramones as it is by house and techno pioneers.
House⁴
Where it comes from
* As an English surname, from the noun house.
* Also as an English surname, variant of Howes.
* Also as a topographic English surname, from a derivative of Old English hyse (“place overgrown with water plants”), from hos (“bramble, thorn, sprout”). This may have also made its way into Hose, Huss.
* As a German surname, calqued from the surname Haus.
proper noun Houses
- Ellipsis of House of Representatives Prop. 50 proponents, including Newsom and Democrats in the state Legislature and in Congress, say the proposition is needed to counteract Texas’ recent redistricting efforts to give the GOP more House seats.
- Ellipsis of House of Commons
- Ellipsis of House of Parliament
- More generally, a shortened name for any chamber of a legislature that is named "House of...", especially where the other chamber(s) are not so named, or where there is no other chamber (unicameral).
- A village in Quay County, New Mexico, United States.
- An unincorporated community in Pitt County, North Carolina, United States.
- A topographic surname from Middle English for someone residing in a house (as opposed to a hut) or in a religious house. The incumbent and embattled Henyard lost Tuesday’s Democratic primary to Trustee Jason House by a landslide, with House winning nearly 90% of the vote.
- Christ Church, Oxford.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: mansion, home, household, put up, firm, family, sign, menage, theatre, theater, business firm, planetary house, chamber, room, casa, manor
Translations
Every language
noun human abode
| Español | casa, casalicio |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 집 jip, 댁 daek |
| 日本語 | 家, 建物 tatemono, 家屋 kaoku, 一戸建て ikkodate, お宅 otaku, お住まい osumai |
| 中文 | 房屋 fángwū, 家 jiā, 房子 fángzi, 屋子 wūzi, 住宅 zhùzhái |
| हिन्दी | घर ghar, मकान makān, गृह gŕh, आवास āvās, निवास nivās, निकेतन niketan |
| Kiswahili | nyumba |
| Português | casa |
| Français | maison |
| Deutsch | Haus |
| Italiano | casa |
| Ελληνικά | σπίτι spíti |
| Română | casă |
| Русский | дом dom |
| Tiếng Việt | nhà, nhà ở |
| العربية | بَيْت bayt, مَنْزِل manzil, دَار dār |
| עברית | בַּיִת báyit |
noun archetypal structure of a human abode — see also chalet
| Español | casa |
|---|---|
| हिन्दी | घर ghar |
| Português | casa |
| Français | maison |
| Deutsch | Haus |
| Italiano | casa |
| Ελληνικά | σπίτι spíti |
| Русский | дом dom |
noun debating chamber for government politicians
| Español | cámara |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 의원 uiwon |
| 日本語 | 議院 giin |
| 中文 | 議院 /议院 yìyuàn |
| हिन्दी | सदन sadan |
| Português | câmara |
| Français | chambre |
| Deutsch | Haus, Kammer |
| Italiano | camera |
| Română | cameră |
| Русский | пала́та paláta |
| Tiếng Việt | nghị viện |
| العربية | مَجْلِس majlis |
noun dynasty, familiar descendance
| Español | casa |
|---|---|
| हिन्दी | राजवंश rājvañś, राजकुल rājkul, घराना gharānā |
| Português | casa |
| Français | maison, dynastie |
| Deutsch | Haus |
| Ελληνικά | οίκος oíkos |
| Română | dinastie, familie dinastică |
| Русский | дом dom, дина́стия dinástija |
noun grouping of schoolchildren
| Português | grupo |
|---|
noun astrology: one of the twelve divisions of an astrological chart
| Español | casa |
|---|---|
| हिन्दी | घर ghar |
| Português | casa |
noun children's game
| हिन्दी | घर-घर ghar-ghar |
|---|---|
| Português | casinha |
| Français | le papa et la maman |
| Deutsch | Mutter, Vater, Kind |
verb keep within a structure or container
| Español | almacenar |
|---|---|
| Kiswahili | nyumba |
| Português | armazenar |
| Français | garer, loger |
| Italiano | collocare |
| Română | casă |
| Русский | вмеща́ть vmeščátʹ |
verb admit to residence
| Español | alojar, hospedar, albergar |
|---|---|
| Português | alojar, hospedar |
| Français | héberger, abriter, loger |
| Deutsch | unterbringen, beherbergen |
| Italiano | alloggiare |
| Română | găzdui, adăposti, primi |
| Русский | помеща́ть pomeščátʹ, сели́ть selítʹ |
verb dwell within one of the twelve astrological houses
| Kiswahili | nyumba |
|---|
Talk about this word "house." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/house. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026. house. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 7, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/house "house." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/house.Cite this
@misc{house_2026,
title = {house},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/house},
urldate = {2026-11-07}
}
