noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Someone who looks after the maintenance and cleaning of a public building. Philippines, US
2. 2
   someone employed to clean and maintain a building wordnet
3. 3
   Someone who looks after the maintenance and cleaning of a public building.; A caretaker or custodian; someone who maintains a school building specifically and may serve other administrative roles (the term caretaker is also used in Hong Kong, particularly in ESF and independent British schools). Hong-Kong, Philippines, Scotland, US
4. 4
   A doorman.
5. 5
   A moderator for a discussion forum. Internet, derogatory, sometimes

Synonyms

All synonyms

caretakercleanercuratorcustodianporterair warden

Example

More examples

"Tom accepted the job as janitor at the local high school."

Etymology

From Latin ianitor (“doorkeeper”).

Related phrases

janitor fishbuilding attendantcleaning personcleans upin schoollunch ladymaintenance manman cleaneroffice buildings

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