home

Meanings

1. The place where a person lives, especially with their family.
2. A place that cares for people, such as a home for older people.

Example sentences

• "I go home by bus after school."

  Level A1, Meaning 1

• "She grew up in a small home near the sea."

  Level A2, Meaning 1

• "My grandmother lives in a care home."

  Level B1, Meaning 2

• "Welcome home! We missed you."

  Level A1, Meaning 1

Synonyms and antonyms

Look-alikes and common mistakes

• house : A house is a building. A home is the place you live in and feel you belong to, which might be a house, a flat, or a room.

Word family and forms

Forms: homes

Word partners

Words and phrases that often go with "home".

• at home
• go home
• come home
• home town
• make a home
• home address

Idioms and phrases

make yourself at home

A friendly way to tell a guest to relax and feel comfortable.

"Please come in and make yourself at home."

bring home the bacon

To earn the money a family needs.

"He works two jobs to bring home the bacon."

Origin

Home goes back to Old English ham, which meant a village or a place to live. The idea of a whole village slowly narrowed to a single house and the people in it.

Checked against: Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Dictionary.com.

Usage notes

"Home" often carries a warmer, more personal feeling than "house", which just describes the building.

How to remember it

Home is where the heart is: both words begin with an h and both are about the people you love.

Test yourself

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