Laundry

How to spell laundry

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce laundry

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does laundry mean?

1. nounClothes, bedding, and other items that need washing or have just been washed.
2. nounA room or commercial establishment where clothes and linen are washed.

Laundry in a sentence

• A basket of dirty laundry sat by the bedroom door.

• The hotel sent the sheets to an industrial laundry down the road.

• She folded the warm laundry straight from the dryer.

• Their flat had a small shared laundry in the basement.

Where does laundry come from?

Language of origin: French

The word traces back to the Latin verb lavare, meaning simply 'to wash', the same root that gives English 'lavatory' and 'lather'. In Old French this produced lavandier, a person who washes linen, and the related lavanderie for the washing or the wash-house. Middle English borrowed the term and gradually contracted it: lavendry and laundry name forms appear in the 1300s and 1400s, with the unstressed middle syllable squeezed out until only 'laundry' remained. Over time the meaning broadened to cover both the dirty or clean clothes themselves and the room or business where the washing is done. The collapsed spelling is the real trap, because the 'au' and the silent gap where 'avan' once sat no longer match how the word sounds.

How the word is built

• launder (to wash, from Latin lavare 'to wash')
• -ry (suffix forming a collection or a place of activity)