tiny house

noun

plural tiny houses

: a small house or mobile home that typically has a floor plan of less than 500 square feet and that is usually designed for ergonomics and space efficiency

The Joneses are one of thousands of families around the United States who have chosen to live in a tiny house in the last few years. For some families, it's about saving money. Others love having a house they can move anywhere, because some are actually built on trailers and can be towed with a car.

—The New York Times Magazine

Now, students and recent graduates of Northwestern University are building a home that takes the tiny house concept one step further: a 128-square foot house that is totally off the grid, equipped with solar panels for energy, a battery bank that can store power for times when no solar power is available, and a system for harvesting rain water.

—Rebecca J. Rosen

—sometimes hyphenated when used before another noun

The rhetoric of modern tiny-house living begins with the assertion that big houses, aside from being wasteful and environmentally noxious, are debtors' prisons …

—Alec Wilkinson

Examples of tiny house in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Keep reading to find more tiny houses at Amazon right now for $40,000 or less. —Caroline Hughes, Travel + Leisure, 8 Nov. 2025

While bedrooms aren’t usually the most impressive part of a tiny house, in our opinion, this home’s bedrooms stand out. —Caley Sturgill, Southern Living, 7 Nov. 2025

The City of San Diego approved an ordinance in 2020 allowing homeowners to install movable tiny houses on their property. —Stacy Brandt, San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 Nov. 2025

Ready to make this tiny house yours? —Toni Sutton, PEOPLE, 2 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1987, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for tiny house

• boardinghouse
• charterhouse
• clearinghouse
• coffeehouse
• customhouse
• firehouse
• meetinghouse
• motherhouse
• packinghouse
• pilothouse
• powerhouse
• slaughterhouse