Meaning & use
recreation room
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Meanings
nouncountable
A room used for games, hobbies, or relaxing, especially in a house, hotel, or community building.
Grammar: Countable, so use a/an or a plural: a recreation room, the recreation rooms. Often written as two words, sometimes with a hyphen.
Patterns
- in the recreation room
- a recreation room with something
- use something as a recreation room
The children play table tennis in the recreation room after school.
The hotel has a recreation room with board games and a pool table.
They turned the basement into a recreation room for the whole family.
nouncountableAmerican
A shared space in a workplace or residence where people can rest and socialize.
Grammar: Countable; often used with the definite article when both speaker and listener know which room is meant.
Patterns
- the staff recreation room
- meet in the recreation room
Nurses take their breaks in the staff recreation room on the third floor.
Residents meet in the recreation room every Friday for coffee.
Word forms
| plural | recreation rooms |
|---|
Common combinations
- rec room
- The kids are downstairs in the rec room.
- staff recreation room
- The staff recreation room has a sofa and a coffee machine.
- community recreation room
- The community recreation room hosts exercise classes twice a week.
- turn something into a recreation room
- They turned the garage into a recreation room.
Synonyms and how they differ
- rec room
- Rec room is the short, informal American form; recreation room is the full, more formal term.
- games room
- A games room is mainly for games, while a recreation room can also be for hobbies, exercise, or relaxing.
Word family
- recreation noun
- Enjoyable activities people do in their free time.
- recreational adjective
- Relating to leisure activities, as in recreational facilities.
Commonly confused: recreation room or re-creation?
recreation room vs re-creation
Re-creation (with a hyphen) means making something again, like a re-creation of a historic scene. Recreation without a hyphen means leisure activity.
Practice
Choose the best word or phrase to complete the sentence: 'The hotel has a large ___ where guests can play cards and relax.'
Choose one answer.
A recreation room is a room for games and relaxing. 'Re-creation room' would mean a room for making something again, 'recording room' is for recording sound, and 'recreation' alone is an activity, not a room.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “recreation room”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.