VocabularyBasePractice words

Meaning & use

landlord

noun·Everyday

Last updated

UK/ˈlændlɔːd/
US/ˈlændlɔːrd/

Meanings

  1. nouncountable

    Someone who owns a house, apartment or building and gets money from other people for living or working in it.

    Grammar: A countable noun: a landlord, my landlord. It can refer to a person or a company.

    Patterns

    • pay the landlord
    • a landlord of something

    Our landlord is fixing the broken heater this week.

    She pays her landlord on the first day of every month.

    The landlord refused to lower the rent.

  2. nouncountableBritish

    A man who runs a pub or inn in Britain.

    Grammar: A mainly British use; the female equivalent is landlady.

    Patterns

    • the landlord of the pub

    The landlord of the village pub knew every customer by name.

    We asked the landlord if he had a room for the night.

Word forms

plurallandlords

Common combinations

absentee landlord
The building fell into disrepair because of an absentee landlord.
rent from a landlord
They rent their flat from a private landlord.
landlord and tenant
The law sets rules for landlord and tenant disputes.
contact your landlord
If the roof leaks, contact your landlord immediately.
landlord's permission
You need your landlord's permission to paint the walls.

Synonyms and how they differ

lessor
Lessor is the formal legal term used in contracts, while landlord is the everyday word people actually say.
owner
Owner only says who holds the property, but a landlord is specifically an owner who rents it to others.
proprietor
Proprietor is a more formal word for someone who owns a business such as a shop or hotel, and does not suggest renting rooms.

Opposites

tenantrenter

Word family

landlady noun
a woman who rents out property or runs a pub or boarding house
landowner noun
a person who owns a large area of land
landlordism noun
the system or practice of owning property to rent it out
land noun
the ground that someone owns or uses

Commonly confused: landlord or landowner?

landlord vs landowner

A landowner simply owns land and might farm it or leave it empty, whereas a landlord lets property to tenants for rent.

Practice

The pipes in our apartment burst, so we called our ____ to arrange a repair.

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “landlord”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

Your sentence stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.

Explore more words