Meaning & use
godown
Last updated
UK/ˈɡəʊdaʊn/
US/ˈɡoʊdaʊn/
Meaning
nouncountableIndianregional
A building or large room where goods, grain or other products are stored, especially in South and Southeast Asia.
Grammar: Countable: one godown, several godowns.
Patterns
- a godown for something
- store something in a godown
The rice is stored in a godown near the port.
Workers loaded sacks of cement into the godown.
A fire broke out in the old cloth godown.
Word forms
| plural | godowns |
|---|
Common combinations
- grain godown
- The grain godown was full after the harvest.
- godown keeper
- The godown keeper checks every delivery.
- storage godown
- They rented a storage godown near the market.
- godown in the port
- There is a large godown in the port area.
Synonyms and how they differ
- warehouse
- Warehouse is the standard international word, while godown is used mainly in South and Southeast Asian English.
- depot
- Depot often suggests a place where goods or vehicles are collected and sent on, not just stored.
- storehouse
- Storehouse is more general and can sound old-fashioned compared with godown.
- storeroom
- Storeroom is smaller and is usually part of a larger building.
Word family
- godowns noun
- plural form
- warehouse noun
- the standard English equivalent
- warehousing noun
- the business of storing goods
Commonly confused: godown or go down?
godown vs go down
Go down is a phrasal verb meaning to descend or decrease, and godown is a one-word noun for a storage building.
Practice
The merchant kept thousands of sacks of wheat in his ___ near the river.
Choose one answer.
A godown is a storage building in South Asian English. Go down is a verb phrase and cannot name a place.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “godown”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.
Your sentence stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.