househouse /haʊs/ noun (plural houses /ˈhaʊzɪz/) 1 
the place where someone lives► house
the place where someone lives► house a building that people can live in. You use house especially about a building that is intended to be used by only one family, but you can use the phrase my/your/his/her house to talk about the place where someone lives, even if it is an apartment, condominium, etc.: There are a lot of big houses on this street. Do you want to have the party at my house?
► home the place where you live. You can use home to mean a town, city, or building, but you use it especially about a place where you feel you belong: I’m tired - I just want to go home. He has lived in New York for three months now, but it still doesn’t feel like home. ➔ Advertisers often use home instead of house to mean a building, because home suggests positive feelings, like being comfortable and in a familiar or safe place: There are hundreds of new homes being built at the edge of town. ➔ GRAMMAR: Don’t say: I went to home or I went back my home. Say: I went home. Don’t say: I arrived at home at 8:30. Say: I arrived home at 8:30.
► residence AWL (formal) residence means the same as house, but is often used about the place where a person in an official position lives: Reporters waited outside the governor’s residence all night.
► housing the houses and apartments within a particular area that people can live in: The city is building more low-cost housing downtown.
► shelter a place that gives you protection from bad weather or danger. You use shelter when you are talking about the basic needs of people to have somewhere to stay: The refugees were given food, and tents were put up for shelter.
2 types of houses► house a building where someone lives, which is usually separate from others and is intended to be used by only one family: They live in a two-story house in the suburbs. Their house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and they have a pool in the backyard!
► apartment a set of rooms where someone can live, in a large building that has many of these sets of rooms. You usually rent an apartment: The family lives in a two-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. The apartment building has two empty apartments to rent.
► condominium also condo (informal) an apartment that you can own rather than rent, which always has land outside it that the owner can use. You can also use condominium to talk about a large building that contains several condominiums: My sister bought a condominium near the beach. He lives in a two-story condo with a nice little garden.
► townhouse a house in a group of houses that share one or more walls: The couple bought the townhouse when their children went to college.
► duplex also two-family a large house that is divided into two parts for two different families or people to live in: This beautiful duplex was built in 1995 and has a large yard. They bought a two-family in Dallas, and they rent out the upstairs.
► mansion a very large, expensive house: Hollywood’s biggest stars have mansions in the hills above Los Angeles.
► mobile home also trailer (informal) a house built in a factory, which a vehicle takes to the place where it will stay. Mobile homes are usually made of metal: My family lived in a mobile home until I was nine. ➔ A neighborhood made up of mobile homes is called a “mobile home park” or a “trailer park”: The tornado destroyed a mobile home park on the west side of town.
► dorm also dormitory (formal) a large building with many rooms for college students to live in while they are at college. Students often share their dorm rooms with one or more other students: Jen was Kerry’s roommate in the dorm for their freshman and sophomore years.
► cabin a small house made of wood, usually in a forest or the mountains: The early settlers built log cabins in the woods.
► cottage a small house in the country. You use cottage especially about small country houses in Europe or about houses that are used for vacations in the U.S.: The village was full of beautiful little stone cottages. They have a cottage by the lake where they spend the summer.
► hut a small simple house or building: Most of the huts in the village were washed away in the floods.
► shack a small house that has not been built very well: The poorest people live in shacks made of pieces of wood, sheets of metal, and cardboard.