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

These include a four-car garage, laundry on both floors, and a spacious first-floor primary suite. —Lennie Omalza, Louisville Courier Journal, 4 Sep. 2025

Some women hung their laundry behind their houses, and daughters served their fathers by reading newspapers on wooden benches outside their houses. —Literary Hub, 3 Sep. 2025

Neo is depicted vacuuming, serving tea, wiping windows and tables, and carrying laundry and grocery bags. —Maya Cakmak, IEEE Spectrum, 3 Sep. 2025

The team concluded that developing on-board laundry technology is essential for future long-term missions to the moon or Mars to reduce the massive amount of clothing that must be launched from Earth. —Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 2 Sep. 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