Meaning & use
depot
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Meanings
nouncountable
A building or site where goods, equipment or vehicles are kept until needed.
Grammar: Countable: a bus depot.
Patterns
- a depot for something
- a supply depot
The buses return to the depot at night.
Supplies are stored in a depot near the port.
The delivery depot opens at six.
nouncountableAmerican
A small railway or bus station.
Grammar: This sense is mainly American: the train depot.
Patterns
- the train depot
We waited at the old depot for the bus.
The town's train depot is now a museum.
She met him at the depot.
Word forms
| plural | depots |
|---|
Common combinations
- bus depot
- The bus depot is on the edge of town.
- supply depot
- The army set up a supply depot.
- railway depot
- The railway depot was busy.
- fuel depot
- A fuel depot stores gasoline for the region.
- arms depot
- Soldiers guarded the arms depot.
Synonyms and how they differ
- warehouse
- Warehouse is a large building for storing goods, while depot also covers vehicles and stops.
- storehouse
- Storehouse is older and more general, whereas depot often has a transport link.
- station
- Station is the broader word for a place where passengers board, while depot can be a small or service-only stop.
- garage
- Garage is for cars, while depot is for fleets of vehicles.
Word family
- deposit noun
- something placed or stored, from the same Latin root
- depository noun
- a place where things are stored
- repository noun
- a place where things are kept
Commonly confused: depot or deposit?
depot vs deposit
A deposit is money or something placed for safekeeping, while a depot is a building where goods or vehicles are kept.
Practice
Where would a city's buses usually be kept overnight?
Choose one answer.
A depot is where vehicles are parked and serviced. The other options are not made for buses.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “depot”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.