house

A building where a person or family lives.

• We live in a small house.
• They bought a house near the school.
• How many bedrooms does your house have?

Similar words: home

Common phrases: buy a house, small house, house with a garden

A type of electronic dance music with a strong, regular beat.

• The DJ played house all night.
• She makes house music on her laptop.
• This club is famous for its house nights.

Common phrases: house music, house track, deep house

A company, especially one that publishes books or creates fashionable clothes.

• She works for a publishing house.
• The fashion house launched a new collection.
• Several publishing houses rejected his first novel.

Similar words: company, firm

Common phrases: publishing house, fashion house, design house

A business serving guests or providing entertainment, or the people who run it.

• Dessert is on the house.
• The house reserves the right to refuse service.
• We chose the house wine with our meal.

How to use it: on the house (The manager said our drinks were on the house.)

Similar words: establishment, management

Common phrases: on the house, house rules, house wine

To keep or contain something inside a building or container.

• The museum houses an art collection.
• They housed the equipment in a dry shed.
• The old factory now houses a library.

How to use it: house something in something (They house the records in a secure building.); be housed in something (The collection is housed in the old library.)

Similar words: contain, hold, store

Common phrases: house a collection, house equipment, house something inside

To provide someone with a place to live.

• The shelter houses twenty people.
• They housed the students in a nearby hostel.
• Where will the displaced families be housed?

How to use it: house someone in something (The council housed the families in empty apartments.)

Similar words: accommodate, shelter

Common phrases: house homeless people, house refugees, house someone temporarily

To surround and protect the working parts of a machine with a cover or case.

• The plastic case houses the motor.
• They housed the gears in a steel box.
• All moving parts are housed inside the machine's protective cover.

How to use it: be housed in something (The gears are housed in a metal casing.)

Similar words: enclose, encase

Common phrases: house the motor, house mechanical parts, house the gears