Meaning & use
household
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Meanings
nouncountable
All the people who live together in one home, thought of as a single unit.
Grammar: Countable: you can say a household, two households, many households.
Patterns
- a household of something
- the average household
- household income
- run a household
The average household in this city spends about a third of its income on rent.
My sister and I grew up in a household of six people.
New rules will affect every household in the country.
adjectivebefore a noun
Relating to a home and the people in it, especially the work and things used there.
Grammar: Used before a noun: household chores, household bills, household items.
Patterns
- household chores
- household bills
- household items
- household name
We share all the household chores equally.
The store sells cheap household goods like soap and paper towels.
After the movie, she became a household name overnight.
Word forms
| plural | households |
|---|
Common combinations
- household name
- That brand of coffee is a household name in Britain.
- household chores
- The children help with household chores on weekends.
- household income
- Household income has risen slowly over the past decade.
- single-person household
- Single-person households are becoming more common in big cities.
- head of household
- The form asks who is the head of the household.
Synonyms and how they differ
- family
- Family usually means people related by blood or marriage, while household can include anyone living together, such as lodgers or friends.
- home
- Home refers to the place itself, not the group of people, so use household when you mean the people as a unit.
- house
- House is the building; household is the people who live in it.
Word family
- householder noun
- The person who owns or rents the home where a household lives.
- household adjective
- Relating to the home and its daily needs, as in household bills.
Commonly confused: household or householder?
household vs householder
A household is the whole group of people; a householder is the one person who owns or rents the home.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'household' correctly as an adjective?
Choose one answer.
As an adjective, household comes before a noun and describes things related to the home, as in 'household items'. Option A uses it as a noun with a plural verb, which is possible in British English but does not test the adjective use; option C invents a verb; option D uses the noun sense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “household”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.