dormitory
Definitions
A building or large room providing sleeping accommodation for a number of people, especially students
为多人（尤指学生）提供住宿的楼或大房间；宿舍，集体寝室
(British) A residential town or suburb whose residents commute to work elsewhere (dormitory town)
（英式）居民去别处上班的住宅城镇或郊区（dormitory town，睡城）
Root Breakdown
Root-deriveddormīre ('to sleep') + -ory ('a place for') = literally 'a place for sleeping.' It began as the dormitorium of a medieval monastery, the long hall where monks slept in rows, then passed into schools and universities for the buildings where students sleep. The British 'dormitory town' extends the image: a place people only go back to in order to sleep.
Root dorm still carries 5 more wordsUsage Guide
In American English a dormitory is a campus residence hall (often clipped to dorm). In British English the same building is usually 'halls of residence,' and 'dormitory' more often means a single large shared sleeping room (in a hostel, boarding school, or hospital). Note also the British compound 'dormitory town/suburb' for a commuter community.
Example Sentences
- 1.
The new student dormitory can house over four hundred undergraduates.
- 2.
Lights in the dormitory had to be out by eleven o'clock.
- 3.
The monks slept in a single long dormitory above the cloisters.
- 4.
The village has become a quiet dormitory town for commuters into the city.