# workhouse

> English word · Noun · frequency rank #37,292

## Definitions
1. An institution for homeless poor people funded by the local parish, where the able-bodied were required to work.
2. A prison in which the sentence includes manual labour.
3. A place of manufacture; a factory.

## Etymology
From Middle English werkhous, from Old English weorchūs (“workshop, place of manufacture”), from Proto-Germanic *werkahūsą, equivalent to work + house.

## Easily confused with
- **warehouse** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/warehouse-vs-workhouse)
- **woodhouse** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woodhouse-vs-workhouse)
- **workhorse** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/workhorse-vs-workhouse)

## Common misspellings (13)
`owrkhouse`, `wokrhouse`, `worhkouse`, `workhhouse`, `workhosue`, `workhoues`, `workhousse`, `workhuose`, `workkhouse`, `workohuse`, `worrkhouse`, `wrokhouse`, `wworkhouse`

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