Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
rooming house

rooming house

7 3.7
A house where people rent single rooms and share bathrooms or a kitchen
  • noun
  • /ˈrumɪŋ haʊs/
  • US
translation icon : casa de huéspedes
  • - I'm staying at a rooming house.
  • operating a rooming house
  • living in a rooming house

So she left and was living in a rooming house and I was terrified for my mother.

Examples

  • This is a rooming house.

    Cast a Deadly Spell (1991)

  • Could you recommend a rooming house for the night?

    Desperate Living (1977)

  • I stop at this place, it's a rooming house.

    Poolman (2024)

  • A girl who lives in the rooming house.

    Nashville (1975)

  • I have an address here of a rooming house.

    Carnival of Souls (1962)

  • There had always been neighborhoods of cheap rooming houses when she was growing up.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • If you haven't, I can recommend a quiet little rooming house.

    A Place in the Sun (1951)

  • Back then, the hill had been a place of once grand Victorian homes turned into tired-looking rooming houses.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • I lived in a rundown rooming house on Mifflen Street, among all the longhaired war protesters and scruffy peaceniks.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Could you recommend a rooming house for the night?

Synonyms

hostel
vsrooming house
34 2.1

A cheap place for travelers or students to sleep, often with shared rooms and facilities

is intended for resident tenants rather than short-stay travellers
boardinghouse
vsrooming house
4 4.8

A house where people pay to live and get meals

is similar but usually lacks included meals
lodging house
vsrooming house
  • UK
1 3.6

A house that rents rooms to people for short or long stays

is the same concept expressed with a different name
lodgings
vsrooming house
3.3

Temporary rooms you rent to stay in for a short time

is used for more stable tenancies with shared common facilities
accommodation house
vsrooming house
3.8

A building that offers rooms for people to stay for a short time

is aimed at local tenants rather than short-stay visitors

How Private

apartment
  • US
∞ 1.0
rooming house
  • US
7 3.7
boarding house
  • Archaic
18 2.7

Surface Forms

rooming house singular
rooming houses plural

Morphology

room + house

The meaning 'a house in which rooms are rented' is directly and transparently built from 'room' (to occupy or provide lodging/space) + 'house' (a dwelling): the compound denotes a house for rooming. This compositional pattern (verb/gerund + noun or noun+noun indicating purpose/place) is common and cross-linguistically regular, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should be able to infer the meaning.

Etymology

The term rooming house comes from the simple image of a house split into many small rooms that people 'rent' separately. So, it means a house where different people 'rent' individual rooms and often share the kitchen or bathroom.