1
as in custodians
a person who takes care of a property sometimes for an absent owner
got a job as the night janitor at the elementary school
Synonyms & Similar Words
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2
as in porters
a person who tends a door
according to popular Christian tradition, St. Peter acts as janitor at heaven's pearly gates
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of janitors
Qing Yuan had seen many of these tiny corpses, pinkish, yellowish, tin-gray, curled up, always seemingly asleep, tossed by janitors into fires outside the building.
—
Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2025
Low-wage service workers, including cleaners, janitors, security guards, cafeteria workers and other staffers who keep buildings operating, are often out of luck.
—Matt Egan, CNN Money, 7 Oct. 2025
The great quarterbacks are janitors for organizational messes, smoothing over the cracks and making a bad team look competent for three hours.
—Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 29 Sep. 2025
The Teamsters union includes cooks and other food service workers, as well as groundskeepers, janitors, parking attendants, maintenance workers, mechanics and more.
—Emma McNamee, Twin Cities, 9 Sep. 2025
And there is good reason companies still employ janitors to sweep floors despite the invention of the Roomba and commercial versions of robotic sweepers like Avidbots’ Neo.
—Will Yakowicz, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2025
This includes every level of staffing at local schools, from cafeteria workers to janitors, teachers to playground supervisors.
—Kathy Kristof, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Aug. 2025
Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2025
Low-wage service workers, including cleaners, janitors, security guards, cafeteria workers and other staffers who keep buildings operating, are often out of luck.
—Matt Egan, CNN Money, 7 Oct. 2025
The great quarterbacks are janitors for organizational messes, smoothing over the cracks and making a bad team look competent for three hours.
—Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 29 Sep. 2025
The Teamsters union includes cooks and other food service workers, as well as groundskeepers, janitors, parking attendants, maintenance workers, mechanics and more.
—Emma McNamee, Twin Cities, 9 Sep. 2025
And there is good reason companies still employ janitors to sweep floors despite the invention of the Roomba and commercial versions of robotic sweepers like Avidbots’ Neo.
—Will Yakowicz, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2025
This includes every level of staffing at local schools, from cafeteria workers to janitors, teachers to playground supervisors.
—Kathy Kristof, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for janitors
Noun
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But cities tend to be where people go out looking for birds, trying to find them before the rats get them, or before custodians sweep them away.—
NPR,
NPR,
17 Oct. 2025
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The most visible plans are those devised by the same international custodians who have engineered postwar order elsewhere in the Middle East.—
Mohammed R. Mhawish,
New Yorker,
14 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The five who trekked back to base camp were Nepali porters and guides, Mahato said.—
Helen Regan,
CNN Money,
3 Nov. 2025
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In service jobs, Black workers labored as porters, chauffeurs, and servers; in manufacturing plants, white supremacist pseudoscience was harnessed to justify forcing Black workers to perform the most difficult and dangerous work.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
20 Oct. 2025
Noun
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As the two keepers' accelerating madness batters their already uneasy relationship, the film becomes a phantasmagorical endurance test, with the two antagonistic leads hurling themselves against their tight confinement.—
Dennis Perkins,
Entertainment Weekly,
31 Oct. 2025
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Nearly 200,000 workers are employed in animal care and services, including kennel attendants, groomers, stable hands, zoo keepers and animal trainers.—
Liz O'Connell,
MSNBC Newsweek,
30 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Forest wardens walk into Kyebi Forest Reserve in the East Akim Municipal district in Ghana.—
Charlie Campbell,
Time,
30 Oct. 2025
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The Clermont County Animal Shelter took possession of the animals after they were recovered by the wardens.—
Matthew Cupelli,
Cincinnati Enquirer,
4 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Her caretakers were identified as Enrique Junior Navedo, 43, and Loy Lynn La Pierre, 58.—
Irene Wright,
Miami Herald,
31 Oct. 2025
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In the novel and movie, a family — Wendy and Jack Torrance, and their son Danny — moves to a mountain resort in Colorado to be winter caretakers of the property.—
Julie Tremaine,
PEOPLE,
30 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Janitors.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/janitors. Accessed 5 Nov. 2025.
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