household

plural households

1. collectiveAll the persons who live in a given house or other home; a family including attendants, servants etc.; a domestic or family establishment.

   And calls, without affecting airs, / His household twice a day to prayers.

   1732, Jonathan Swift, The Beasts' Confession to the Priest

   3 more examples

   Shih Hung-pi was born a pauper at a poor household in Suichung County, Liaoning. He suffered untold misery in the old society. Then he joined the PLA.

   1975 March 13 [1975 March 7], “Chief of Staff of PLA Air Unit Dies in Training Exercise”, in Daily Report: People's Republic of China, volume I, number 50, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, →ISSN, →OCLC, page E 6

   Although I was a member of the royal household, I was not among the privileged few who were trained for rule.

   1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 5

   Nearly half of all renter households in the US were cost-burdened in 2023, meaning they paid more than 30% of their income towards housing costs, according to new government data.

   2024 September 12, Samantha Delouya, “Nearly half of US renters spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs”, in CNN Business

   Synonyms: ménage

2. Entirety of work and management required to sustain the household.
3. Legal or culturally determined unit of people living together.
4. obsoleteA line of ancestry; a race or house.

   In thee thy mother dies, our household's name, / My death's revenge, thy youth, and England's fame.

   1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi], line 39

1. not comparableBelonging to the same house and family.
2. not comparableFound in or having its origin in a home.

   1 more example

   Whether boarding an airplane with underwear on your face to protest mask requirements, injecting yourself with horse dewormer instead of a safe and effective vaccine or swallowing household disinfectants because the President of the United States unironically suggested that it might help, the pandemic has amplified the frequency and tenor of ridiculous and sometimes alarming behavior.

   2022 February 10, Abdul El-Sayed, “Canadian trucker protests are the latest example of Covid-19 absurdity”, in CNN, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2022

3. not comparableWidely known to the public; familiar.

   a household word; a household name

   1 more example

   Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, But he’ll remember with advantages What feats he did that day. Then shall our names, Familiar in his mouth as household words, Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.

   1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]

plural Households

1. A surname.