noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A house or place in which a person lives; a habitation, a home.

   "The old house served as a dwelling for Albert."

2. 2
   housing that someone is living in wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of dwell form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms

abodedomicilehabitationhomeabidingabiding place

Example

More examples

"He is always dwelling on the pleasures of the past."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English dwellynge, dwellyng (“delay, continuance, abode”), equivalent to dwell + -ing. More at dwell.

Etymology 2

From dwell + -ing.

Related phrases

bottom-dwellingdwelling housedwelling placedwelling-placelake dwellinghome abodehome structureliving place

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.