Word.ws English Dictionary

earthhouse

UK/ˈɜːθˌhaʊs/US/ˈɝθˌhaʊs/

earthhouse noun: an underground chamber or habitation; a souterrain.

Noun

earthhouse (plural earthhouses)

  1. (archaic) An underground chamber or habitation; a souterrain.
    • There were many other
      heirlooms heaped inside the earth-house,
      because long ago, with deliberate care,
      some forgotten person had deposited the whole
      rich inheritance of a high-born race
      in this ancient cache.1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 71
  2. A dwelling that has been built to blend in with the surrounding landscape, being mostly underground with soil piled against its walls or with a grassy contoured roof; it may also be completely underground, or have a topping of intensive growth.

Forms of earthhouse

pluralearthhouses
alternative formearth house

Origin of earthhouse

Inherited from Middle English erthe hous, from Old English eorþhūs, from Proto-West Germanic *erþahūs, from Proto-Germanic *erþahūsą, equivalent to earth + house.

Questions about earthhouse

What does earthhouse mean?
Earthhouse means an underground chamber or habitation; a souterrain.
What part of speech is earthhouse?
Earthhouse is a noun.
How do you pronounce earthhouse?
Earthhouse is pronounced /ˈɜːθˌhaʊs/ (UK).
What is the plural of earthhouse?
The plural of earthhouse is earthhouses.

Words near earthhouse in the dictionary

  1. earthhog
  2. earthhogs
  3. earthhole
  4. earthholes
  5. earthhood
  6. earthhouse
  7. earthhouses
  8. Earthian
  9. Earthians
  10. Earthican
  11. Earthicans

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: earthhouse (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “earthhouse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/earthhouse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.