roomette

R1O1O1M3E1T1T1E1

noun

A small private compartment, for one person, in a railroad sleeping car.

Scrabble 10

Meanings

nounroomette (plural roomettes)

plural roomettes

  1. USrail transportA small private compartment, for one person, in a railroad sleeping car.

    The 20-hr. rail journey was, I think the most unusual and comfortable that I have ever made, because I travelled in a "roomette," a small private room for one person.

    1953 July, Allen Rowley, “First Impressions of American Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 493
    2 more examples

    Although many luxurious single-room sleepers are in service, the demand for sleeping accommodation on long journeys is so great that vehicles less weighty in proportion to their passenger accommodation, and therefore less expensive for the traveller, have become a paramount need, which is largely solved by the roomette car.

    1944 November and December, “"Duplex Roomette" Sleeping Cars”, in Railway Magazine, page 324

    For most of its journey it is made up to about fourteen cars, of which a large proportion provide the better type of sleeping accommodation (bedrooms, roomettes, etc.).

    1959 November, J. N. Westwood, “The Railways of Canada”, in Trains Illustrated, page 554

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*Hrew-?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*(H)rewH-
  3. Proto-Germanic*rūmą
  4. Proto-West Germanic*rūm
  5. Old Englishrūm
  6. Middle Englishroum
  7. Englishroom
  8. Englishroomette

From room + -ette.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Spanish alcobeta
  • alcobetaTranslations
Cite this entry
APA

roomette. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/roomette

MLA

“roomette.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/roomette. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “roomette,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/roomette.

Source: roomette on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.