Meaning & use
detached house
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Meaning
nouncountable
A house that stands alone, with open space or a path on every side and no shared walls with its neighbors.
Grammar: Countable noun, often with a number of bedrooms: a three-bedroom detached house.
Patterns
- a detached house with something
- buy a detached house
- a detached house in somewhere
They sold their flat and bought a detached house with a large garden.
A four-bedroom detached house on this street costs far more than a terraced one.
Because it is a detached house, you can play music without disturbing the neighbors.
Word forms
| plural | detached houses |
|---|
Common combinations
- a four-bedroom detached house
- The agent showed us a four-bedroom detached house near the park.
- a large detached house
- A large detached house stood at the end of the lane.
- buy a detached house
- They saved for years to buy a detached house.
- a detached house with a garden
- We want a detached house with a garden for the dog.
- a detached house in the suburbs
- His parents live in a detached house in the suburbs.
Synonyms and how they differ
- freestanding house
- Freestanding house describes the same layout but is a plainer descriptive phrase rather than the standard British estate-agent term.
- single-family home
- Single-family home is the usual American phrase and stresses that one household lives there, though it need not be completely separate.
- stand-alone house
- Stand-alone house is an informal alternative that is used in news and design writing but is less common than detached house in property listings.
Opposites
Word family
- detach verb
- to separate something from something else
- detached adjective
- not joined to another thing; also emotionally distant
- detachment noun
- the state of being separate or emotionally distant
- semi-detached adjective
- joined to one other house on one side
Commonly confused: detached house or semi-detached house?
detached house vs semi-detached house
A semi-detached house shares one wall with the house next door, while a detached house shares none.
Practice
Which description matches a detached house?
Choose one answer.
A detached house is completely separate from other buildings. The first option describes a semi-detached house and the second a terraced house.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “detached house”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.