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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

room.

An opportunity or scope (to do something).

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɹʊm/Received-Pronunciation/ɹuːm/Received-Pronunciation/ɹɵm/British, Southern, Standard/ɹʉwm/British, Southern, Standard
  1. An opportunity or scope (to do something).

    archaic · countable · uncountable
  2. Space for something, or to carry out an activity.

    uncountable
  3. A particular portion of space.

    archaic · countable · uncountable
  4. Sufficient space for or to do something.

    figuratively · uncountable
  5. A space between the timbers of a ship's frame.

    countable · uncountable
  6. A place; a stead.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  7. A separate part of a building, enclosed by walls, a floor and a ceiling.

    countable
  8. (One's) bedroom.

    countable
    Go to your room!
  9. A set of rooms inhabited by someone; one's lodgings.

    countable · in-plural · uncountable
  10. The people in a room.

    countable · metonymically · singular · uncountable · usually
    The room was on its feet.
    He was good at reading rooms.
  11. An area for working in a coal mine.

    countable · uncountable
  12. A portion of a cave that is wider than a passage.

    countable · uncountable
  13. An IRC or chat room.

    Internet · countable
    Some users may not be able to access the AOL room.
  14. A place or position in society; office; rank; post, sometimes when vacated by its former occupant.

    countable · uncountable
  15. A quantity of furniture sufficient to furnish one room.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

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.

verb/ɹʊm/Received-Pronunciation/ɹuːm/Received-Pronunciation/ɹɵm/British, Southern, Standard/ɹʉwm/British, Southern, Standard
  1. To reside, especially as a boarder or tenant.

    intransitive
    Doctor Watson roomed with Sherlock Holmes at Baker Street.
  2. To assign to a room; to allocate a room to.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

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.

adj/ɹʊm/Received-Pronunciation/ɹuːm/Received-Pronunciation/ɹɵm/British, Southern, Standard/ɹʉwm/British, Southern, Standard
  1. Wide; spacious; roomy.

    dialectal · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English roum, rom, rum, from Old English rūm (“roomy, spacious, ample, extensive, large, open, unencumbered, unoccupied, temporal, long, extended, great, liberal, unrestricted, unfettered, clear, loose, free from conditions, free from occupation, not restrained within due limits, lax, far-reaching, abundant, noble, august”), from Proto-Germanic *rūmaz (“roomy, spacious”), from Proto-Indo-European *rewh₁- (“free space”). Cognate with Scots roum (“spacious, roomy”), Dutch ruim (“roomy, spacious, wide”), Danish rum (“wide, spacious”), German raum (“wide”), Icelandic rúmur (“spacious”).

adv/ɹʊm/Received-Pronunciation/ɹuːm/Received-Pronunciation/ɹɵm/British, Southern, Standard/ɹʉwm/British, Southern, Standard
  1. Far; at a distance; wide in space or extent.

    dialectal · obsolete
  2. Off from the wind.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English rome, from Old English rūme (“widely, spaciously, roomily, far and wide, so as to extend over a wide space, liberally, extensively, amply, abundantly, in a high degree, without restriction or encumbrance, without the pressure of care, light-heartedly, without obstruction, plainly, clearly, in detail”). Cognate with Dutch ruim (“amply”, adverb).

noun/ɹʊm/Received-Pronunciation/ɹuːm/Received-Pronunciation/ɹɵm/British, Southern, Standard/ɹʉwm/British, Southern, Standard
  1. Alternative form of roum (“deep blue dye”).

    alt-of · alternative · uncountable
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.