Home or house?
home is a noun meaning “One’s own dwelling place; the house or structure in which one lives; especially…”; house is a noun meaning “A structure built or serving as an abode of human beings”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) home is about as common as house.
What is the difference between home and house?
| home | house | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb, adjective, adverb, prefix | noun, verb |
| Meaning | One’s own dwelling place; the house or structure in which one lives; especially the house in which one lives with one's family; the habitual abode of one’s… The place (residence, settlement, country, etc.), where a person was born or raised; a childhood or parental home; the home of one’s parents or guardian To return to its owner | A structure built or serving as an abode of human beings An apartment building within a public housing estate To keep within a structure or container |
| Example | Does she still live at home? - No, she moved out and got an apartment when she was 18, but she still lives in the city | This is my house and my family's ancestral home |
| Forms | homes | houses, hice |
| Pronunciation | /həʊm/ /hoʊm/ [hoːm] | /haʊ̯s/ [haʊ̯s] /haws/ |
| In writing | 646 times per million words | 513 times per million words |
Sources: home and house in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of home and house
home
- 1
One’s own dwelling place; the house or structure in which one lives; especially the house in which one lives with one's family; the habitual abode of one’s family
- 2
To return to its owner
The dog homed
- 3
Of, from, or pertaining to one’s dwelling or country; domestic; not foreign
home manufactures
- 4
To one's place of residence or one's customary or official location
go home
- 5
A key that when pressed causes the cursor to go to the first character of the current line, or in a web browser to the top of the web page
- 6
Alternative spelling of homoe-
- 7
The place (residence, settlement, country, etc.), where a person was born or raised; a childhood or parental home; the home of one’s parents or guardian
Does she still live at home? - No, she moved out and got an apartment when she was 18, but she still lives in the city
- 8
Relating to the home team (the team at whose venue a game is played)
the home end, home advantage, home supporters
house
- 1
A structure built or serving as an abode of human beings
This is my house and my family's ancestral home
- 2
To keep within a structure or container
The car is housed in the garage
- 3
House music
- 4
An apartment building within a public housing estate
- 5
To admit to residence; to harbor
- 6
A container; a thing which houses another
- 7
To take shelter or lodging; to abide; to lodge
- 8
Size and quality of residential accommodations; housing
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, home or house?
home appears 646 times per million words; house 513 times per million words.
home 646 times per million wordshouse 513 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search home vs house?
“home vs house” is searched about 1,300 times a month on Google and 30 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“house vs home”, “home or house”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.