English Explanatory Dictionary

room

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An opportunity or scope (to do something).
  2. Space for something, or to carry out an activity.
  3. A particular portion of space.
  4. Sufficient space for or to do something.
  5. A space between the timbers of a ship's frame.
  6. A place; a stead.
  7. A separate part of a building, enclosed by walls, a floor and a ceiling.
  8. (One's) bedroom.
  9. A set of rooms inhabited by someone; one's lodgings.
  10. The people in a room.
  11. An area for working in a coal mine.
  12. A portion of a cave that is wider than a passage.
verb
  1. To reside, especially as a boarder or tenant.
  2. To assign to a room; to allocate a room to.
adj
  1. Wide; spacious; roomy.
adv
  1. Far; at a distance; wide in space or extent.
  2. Off from the wind.
noun
  1. Alternative form of roum (“deep blue dye”).

Pronunciation

/ɹʊm/ /ɹuːm/ En-uk-room.ogg /ɹum/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-room.wav en-us-room.ogg /ɹʉm/ /ɾʉm/

Word forms

room rooms roome rooming roomed more room most room

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *Hrew-? Proto-Indo-European *(H)rewH-der. Proto-Germanic *rūmą Proto-West Germanic *rūm Old English rūm Middle English roum English room From Middle English roum (“room, space”), from Old English rūm (“room, space”), from Proto-West Germanic *rūm (“room”), from Proto-Germanic *rūmą (“room”), from Proto-Indo-European *(H)rewH- (“to root; to rip, tear”), from *Hrew- (“to tear out, open”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian rüm (“room, space”), Saterland Frisian and Low German Ruum (“room, space”), Dutch ruim (“open space; cargo hold”), German and Luxembourgish Raum (“room, space”), Vilamovian raojm (“room”), Danish and Swedish rum (“room, space”), Faroese and Icelandic rúm (“space, room”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk rom (“room, space”), Gothic 𐍂𐌿𐌼 (rum, “room, space”); also Irish rúsc (“bark”), Manx roost (“bark; peel, rind”), Scottish Gaelic rùsg (“rind; bark; fleece; shell”), Welsh rhisgl (“bark”), Latin rūs (“country, fields, lands; estate, farm; village”), Ancient Greek ὀρύσσω (orússō), ὀρύττω (orúttō, “to dig”), Latvian raut (“to pull with force”), Lithuanian rauti (“to grub, pull”), Belarusian рыць (rycʹ, “to dig”), Bulgarian ри́я (ríja, “to excavate”), Czech rýt (“to dig; to engrave”), Polish ryć (“to dig”), Russian рыть (rytʹ, “to dig; to burrow, mine”), Slovak ryť (“to dig; to engrave”), Slovene riti (“to dig”), Ukrainian ри́ти (rýty, “to dig, excavate”), Central Kurdish ڕێو (rêw, “public hair”), Tocharian A kärpi (“raw, rough; common”), Tocharian B kärpiye (“raw, rough; common”), Sanskrit लोमन् (loman), रोमन् (roman, “body hair; down, wool”). More at rural. Doublet of Raum, a surname from German. The word superficially appears to be an exception to the Great Vowel Shift, which might have produced the pronunciation /ɹaʊm/, but the retention of Middle English /uː/ before /m/ is regular. In fact, /aʊ/ does not occur before non-coronal consonants in Standard Modern English native vocabulary. Some dialects did undergo diphthongization in such a position and the pronunciation /ɹaʊm/ occurs, for example, in Lancashire.

Synonyms

rm room elbow room legroom space chamber quarters

Related words

clean my room elbow room elephant in the room get a room in the room need a room no room at the inn room and board room at the top room by room room for abuse room for apology room for dessert room for error room for improvement room service room to breathe room to grow room to roam room with a view standing room only work the room :Category:Rooms Template:Room on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Derived words

800-pound gorilla in the room Ames room anger room anteroom anti-room Arizona room art room assembly room assume room temperature audit room AV room baby elephant in the room back room backroom Backrooms bagroom balance room ballroom ball-room bandroom barnroom barrack-room lawyer barracks room lawyer bar room barroom bath room bathroom bathroomette bedroom bed-room bed room bed-sitting room big blue room big room big room house billiard-room billiard room billiards room black room blue room boardroom board-room board room boiler room bookroom boot room boxroom box room boys' room breadroom bread-room breakout room break room breakroom breathing room browsing room bunkroom butt room by-room cardroom
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