laundry

noun

laun·​dry ˈlȯn-drē 

ˈlän-

plural laundries

1

a

: a room for doing the family wash

b

: a commercial laundering establishment

2

: clothes or linens that have been or are to be laundered

Examples of laundry in a Sentence

There's a pile of dirty laundry in the laundry basket.

The patients' sheets are sent regularly to the hospital laundry.

Recent Examples on the Web

Matarazzo said that laundry would pile up and dirty dishes would stack up in the sink. —Daysia Tolentino, Entertainment Weekly, 27 Nov. 2025

Doing laundry has come a long way since people beat clothes on a rock or boiled them in a big cast-iron tub over a wood fire. —Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 27 Nov. 2025

Is the never-ending pile of laundry just weighing her down? —Hannah Sacks, PEOPLE, 26 Nov. 2025

An Australian shepherd's eagerness to help her owner with the laundry delighted Instagram viewers and left some wishing their own households could be as efficient. —Liz O'Connell, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1577, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing laundry

• air one's dirty laundry
• dirty laundry
• do the/one's laundry
• laundry list
• load of laundry

Kids Definition

laundry

noun

laun·​dry ˈlȯn-drē 

ˈlän-

plural laundries

1

: clothes or linens that have been or are to be laundered

2

: a place where laundering is done

Etymology

from an obsolete word launder (noun) "one who washes clothes," derived from early French lavandier (or lavandiere) "a man (or woman) who washes clothes," from Latin lavandus "needing to be washed," from lavare "to wash" — related to lavatory, lavish, lotion