house
n.a building where people live, usually for one family. You use this word for the physical structure rather than the feeling of being at home.
n.a building that serves as a living space for one or more families. Often used to distinguish a detached or semi-detached structure from an apartment or flat.
“They are building a new house on our street.”
“After living in a small apartment for years, they finally saved enough money to buy a house with a garden.”
“The architect designed the house to maximize natural light, using large glass panels that blur the boundary between the interior living space and the surrounding woodland.”
Commonly used with the verbs 'build', 'buy', or 'rent'; distinguished from 'home' which carries more emotional or personal significance.
house vs home — House is the physical structure or building; home is the place where you live and feel a sense of belonging.
Learners often use 'house' when they mean 'home' to describe their destination; 'home' is used as an adverb of direction without a preposition.
Usage house arrest · houses built · house about people
* As an English surname, from the noun house. * Also as an English surname, variant of Howes. * Also as a topographic English surname, from a derivative of Old English hyse (“place overgrown with water plants”), from hos (“bramble, thorn, sprout”). This may have also made its way into Hose, Huss. * As a German surname, calqued from the surname Haus.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.