# housing

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈhaʊzɪŋ/ · frequency rank #1,759

## Definitions
1. The activity of enclosing something or providing a residence for someone.
2. Residences, collectively.
3. A mechanical component's container or covering.
4. A cover or cloth for a horse's saddle, as an ornamental or military appendage; a saddlecloth; a horse cloth; in plural, trappings.
5. An appendage to the harness or collar of a harness.
6. The space taken out of one solid to admit the insertion of part of another, such as the end of one timber in the side of another.
7. A niche for a statue.
8. That portion of a mast or bowsprit which is beneath the deck or within the vessel.
9. A houseline.

## Etymology
From Middle English housynge, housinge, from housen (“to house, shelter; receive into one's house”), equivalent to house + -ing. Cognate with Scots housing (“housing”), Old Frisian hūsinge (whence Saterland Frisian Huzenge); compare also Dutch huizing, behuizing (“housing”), Low German husing, hüsing (“housing”), German Behausung (“housing”), Swedish inhysing (“housing”).

## Easily confused with
- **howling** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/housing-vs-howling)
- **hoping** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hoping-vs-housing)
- **homing** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/homing-vs-housing)
- **honing** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/honing-vs-housing)
- **holding** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holding-vs-housing)
- **hosting** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hosting-vs-housing)
- **hopping** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hopping-vs-housing)
- **hauling** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hauling-vs-housing)
- **hooking** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hooking-vs-housing)
- **hissing** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hissing-vs-housing)
- **honking** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/honking-vs-housing)
- **Houdini** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/houdini-vs-housing)
- **hogging** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hogging-vs-housing)
- **hoisting** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hoisting-vs-housing)

## Common misspellings (10)
`hhousing`, `hosuing`, `houisng`, `housign`, `housingg`, `housinng`, `housnig`, `houssing`, `huosing`, `ohusing`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/housing