household

Meaning

Noun

1. Collectively, all the persons who live in a given house; a family including attendants, servants etc.; a domestic or family establishment.
2. Entirety of work and management required to sustain the household.
3. Legal or culturally determined unit of people living together.
4. (obsolete) A line of ancestry; a race or house.

Adj

1. Belonging to the same house and family.
2. Found in or having its origin in a home.
3. Widely known to the public; familiar.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈhaʊshəʊld/

Etymology

From Middle English houshold, equivalent to house + hold. Cognate with Scots houshald, housald, housell, howsell (“household”), Dutch huishouden (“household”) (earlier huishoud), German Low German Huushollen (“household”) (Middle Low German hūsholt), German Haushalt (“household”), Swedish hushåll (“household, family”), Norwegian husholdning (“household”).