Dormitory

How to spell dormitory

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce dormitory

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dormitory mean?

1. nounA large bedroom for several people, or a building providing sleeping quarters, typically at a school, college, or institution.

Dormitory in a sentence

• The boarding school renovated the old dormitory over the summer.

• Each new student was assigned a bed in the freshman dormitory.

Where does dormitory come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin dormitorium, meaning 'a sleeping place', which was itself built on the verb dormire, 'to sleep'. The ending -orium marked a place set aside for a particular activity, the same element seen in 'auditorium' (a place for hearing) and 'laboratory' (a place for working). English adopted the word in the 1400s to describe a large room or building where many people sleep, originally in monasteries and convents. Over time it broadened to the sleeping quarters of schools, colleges, and universities, and in American usage it shrank conversationally to 'dorm'. The same dormire root survives in the everyday word 'dormant', describing something that is in effect asleep, and remembering 'sleep' is the surest way to keep the i in the unstressed middle of dormitory.

How the word is built

• dormit- (from Latin dormire: to sleep)
• -ory (place where something happens)