room

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹʊm/, /ɹuːm/

  • Audio (UK, with /ʊ/):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɹum/

  • Audio (US, with /u/):

    (file)

• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /ɹʉm/, /ɾʉm/
• (New England, Tidewater, Ottawa Valley) IPA^(key): /ɹʊm/
• Homophone: rheum (/ɹu(ː)m/, /ɹʉm/)
• Homophone: rum (/ɹʊm/) (without the foot-strut split)
• Rhymes: -uːm, -ʊm

From Middle English roum, from Old English rūm (“room, space”), from Proto-West Germanic *rūm (“room”), from Proto-Germanic *rūmą (“room”), from Proto-Indo-European *rewh₁- (“free space”).

Cognate with Low German Ruum, Dutch ruimte (“space”) and Dutch ruim (“cargo load”), German Raum (“space, interior space”), Danish rum (“space, locality”), Norwegian rom (“space”), Swedish rum (“space, location”), and also with Latin rūs (“country, field, farm”) through Indo-European. More at rural.

In the standard language, it is ostensibly an exception to the Great Vowel Shift, which otherwise would have produced the pronunciation /ɹaʊm/, but /aʊ/ does not occur before noncoronal consonants in standard Modern English native vocabulary. The pronunciation /ɹaʊm/ does occur in, for example, Lancashire.^[1]

room (countable and uncountable, plural rooms)

1. (now rare) Opportunity or scope (to do something). [from 9th c.]
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts:

     Thou lorde whiche knowest the hertes of all men, shewe whether thou hast chosen of these two, that the one maye take the roume of this ministracion, and apostleshippe from the which Judas by transgression fell, that he myght goo to his awne place.

   • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;  […], →OCLC:

     Nor shalt thou give me room to doubt whether it be necessity or love, that inspires this condescending impulse.

2. (uncountable) Space for something, or to carry out an activity. [from 10th c.]
   • 2010 August 27, Jonathan Franklin, The Guardian:

     He explains they have enough room to stand and lie down, points out the "little cup to brush our teeth", and the place where they pray.

3. (archaic) A particular portion of space. [from 11th c.]
   • 1614, Thomas Overbury, Characters:

     If he have but twelve pence in his purse, he will give it for the best room in a playhouse.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 14:8:

     When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room.

4. (uncountable, figuratively) Sufficient space for or to do something. [from 15th c.]
   • 1716 March 13 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 21. Friday, March 2. [1716.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC:

     There was no prince in the empire who had room for such an alliance.

   • 2010 September 12, Roger Bootle, The Telegraph:

     There are major disagreements within the Coalition and politicians always want to retain room for manoeuvre.

5. (nautical) A space between the timbers of a ship's frame. [from 15th c.]
6. (obsolete) Place; stead.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:

     For this purpose I have shown that no acquisitions of guilt can compensate the loss of that solid inward comfort of mind, which is the sure companion of innocence and virtue; nor can in the least balance the evil of that horror and anxiety which, in their room, guilt introduces into our bosoms.

   • 1900, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, 2nd edition, volume 2, page 37:

     A ram was accepted as a vicarious sacrifice in room of the royal victim.

8. (countable) A separate part of a building, enclosed by walls, a floor and a ceiling. [from 15th c.]
   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:

     Miss Bingley made no answer, and soon afterwards she got up and walked about the room.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.

9. (countable, with possessive pronoun) (One's) bedroom.

   Go to your room!

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     ‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’

10. (in the plural) A set of rooms inhabited by someone; one's lodgings. [from 17th c.]
11. (usually in the singular, metonymically) The people in a room. [from 17th c.]

    The room was on its feet.

    He was good at reading rooms.

    It was fun to watch her work the room.

12. (mining) An area for working in a coal mine. [from 17th c.]
13. (caving) A portion of a cave that is wider than a passage. [from 17th c.]
14. (Internet, countable) An IRC or chat room. [from 20th c.]

    Some users may not be able to access the AOL room.

    • 2000, “My Internet Girl”, performed by Aaron Carter:

      Here in the room we are as one / Together you and me, together you and me / Hours connect / As we switch on

15. Place or position in society; office; rank; post, sometimes when vacated by its former occupant.
    • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iii:

      When ſhee that rules in Rhamnis golden gates, […]
      Shall make me ſolely Emperour of Aſia,
      Then ſhall your meeds and vallours be aduaunſt
      To roomes of honour and Nobilitie.

    • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

      Let Bianca take her sister's room.

    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 2:22:

      When he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod.

    • 1848, William Tyndale, edited by Henry Walter, Doctrinal Treatises and Introductions to Different Portions of the Holy Scriptures:

      Neither that I look for a higher room in heaven.

16. A quantity of furniture sufficient to furnish one room.
    • 1985, August Wilson, Fences:

      “I understand you need some furniture and can’t get no credit.” I liked to fell over. He say, “I’ll give you all the credit you want, but you got to pay the interest on it.” I told him, “Give me three rooms worth and charge whatever you want.”

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:room.

• (space): elbow room, legroom, space
• (part of a building): chamber, quarters
• (part of a cave): chamber
• rm
• See also Thesaurus:room

• See Category:en:Rooms

• → Japanese: ルーム (rūmu)
• → Kikuyu: rumu
• → Maori: rūma

room (third-person singular simple present rooms, present participle rooming, simple past and past participle roomed)

1. (intransitive) To reside, especially as a boarder or tenant.

   Doctor Watson roomed with Sherlock Holmes at Baker Street.

   • 1951, J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 25:

     Even without looking up, I knew right away who it was. It was Robert Ackley, this guy that roomed right next to me.

   • 1971 June 13, Paul Goldberger, “On the Champs — Elysees: ‘Hey, Aren't You the Girl Who Sits Across From Me in Abnormal Psych?’”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     But, then, running into the guy who rooms across the hall from me—in the Paris Metro?

2. (transitive) To assign to a room; to allocate a room to.
   • 1988, Arthur Frederick Ide, AIDS hysteria, page 12:

     […] convinced (with no scientific evidence) that they would contract the dread disease by breathing the same air in which the patient was roomed, by touching the patient or even by changing the sheets of a patient's bed.

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”).

room (comparative more room, superlative most room)

1. (dialectal or obsolete) Wide; spacious; roomy.

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).

room (comparative more room, superlative most room)

1. (dialectal or obsolete) Far; at a distance; wide in space or extent.
2. (nautical) Off from the wind.

room (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of roum (“deep blue dye”)

• Room in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
• room on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “room”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “room”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• Moor, Moro, Romo, moor

From Dutch room, from Middle Dutch rôme, from Old Dutch *rōm, from Proto-West Germanic *raum, from Proto-Germanic *raumaz, , from Proto-Indo-European *réwgʰmn̥ (“cream”).

• IPA^(key): /rʊə̯m/

• Audio:

  (file)

room (uncountable)

1. cream

From Middle Dutch rôme, from Old Dutch *rōm, from Proto-West Germanic *raum, from Proto-Germanic *raumaz, from Proto-Indo-European *réwgʰmn̥ (“cream”).

• IPA^(key): /roːm/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: room
• Rhymes: -oːm

room m (uncountable)

1. cream (of milk)

• afromen
• ontromen
• roomboter
• roomijs
• roomsaus
• slagroom

• Afrikaans: room
• Negerhollands: room
• → Papiamentu: rom, room

• moor