A house is a home, building or structure the primary function of which is to be occupied for habitation by humans or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to complex structures composed of many systems. English-speaking people generally call any building they routinely occupy "home".
The social unit that lives in a house is known as a household. Most commonly, a household is a family unit of some kind, though households may be other social groups, organizations or individuals.
Read more about House: Etymology, Construction, Found Materials, Identifying Houses, Animal Houses, Houses and Symbolism
Famous quotes containing the word house:
“Part way back from Bedlam
I came to my mother’s house in Gloucester,
Massachusetts. And this is how I came
to catch at her; and this is how I lost her.
I cannot forgive your suicide, my mother said.
And she never could.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“I have always endeavored to acquire strict business habits; they are indispensable to every man. If your trade is with the Celestial Empire, then some small counting house on the coast, in some Salem harbor, will be fixture enough.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“This is the rat
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.”
—Mother Goose (fl. 17th–18th century. The House That Jack Built (l. 4–6)