Types of Houses in English: 30+ House Names with Pictures & Definitions

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Learning the names of different types of houses in English can help you improve your vocabulary for daily conversations. In this guide, you will learn over 30 common house types with simple definitions and examples to make learning easier.

List of House Types in English

Here is a list of common house names in English:

• Barn

• Apartment building (US) / Block of flats (UK)

• Bungalow

• Cabin

• Camper van

• Castle

• Chalet

• Colonial house

• Condominium (Condo)

• Container house

• Cottage

• Courtyard house

• Detached house

• Dormitory (Dorm)

• Farmhouse

• Gable-front house

• Hut

• Igloo

• Lighthouse

• Manor house

• Mansion

• Mobile home / Trailer

• Semi-detached house

• Skyscraper / High-rise building

• Split-level house

• Tent

• Terraced house (Row house)

• Tower

• Treehouse

• Villa

• Hotel

• Octagon house

House Types with Definitions and Example Sentences

Barn

People used a barn structure as a house and a stable at the same time, gaining the benefits of living close to animals.

• Example: The sheep were penned in behind the barn.

Apartment building (U.S) /Block of Flats (U.K) 

A suite of rooms forming one residence, typically in a building containing a number of these.

• Example: There’s a nine-storey apartment building next to the bank.

Bungalow

A low house, with a broad front porch, having either no upper floor or upper rooms set in the roof, typically with dormer windows.

• Example: I share a bungalow with my nan and our pet dog Ben.

Cabin

A small shelter or house, made of wood and situated in a wild or remote area.

• Example: He showed her to a small cabin.

Camper van

A campervan (or camper van), sometimes referred to as a camper, is a self-propelled vehicle that provides both transport and sleeping accommodation. The term mainly describes vans that have been fitted out, often with a coach-built body for use as accommodation.

• Example: We bought a camper van so we could go away whenever the fancy took us.

Castle

A large building, typically of the medieval period, fortified against attack with thick walls, battlements, towers, and in many cases a moat.

• Example: They had to approach the castle through thick swamps.

Chalet

A wooden house or cottage with overhanging eaves, typically found in the Swiss Alps.

• Example: The two-bedroom chalet is in good condition.

Colonial

The Colonial home is one of the most popular styles of home in the United States. The homes are symmetrical in design, or square, and feature an entry door that can be found in the middle of the front of the home. The style also features two windows on either side of the entry door, with five windows on the second floor, with one directly above the entry door.

• Example: We want to live in a colonial house.

Condominium/condo

A condominium, often shortened to condo, in the United States and in most Canadian provinces, is a type of living space similar to an apartment but independently sellable and therefore regarded as real estate.

• Example: They rent out their condominium to skiers during the winter.

Container house

Container homes made from the steel shipping containers that you see carrying goods everywhere on trains, trucks, and ships.

• Example: They are selling a container house on the market.

Cottage house

A cottage is, typically, a small house. It may carry the connotation of being an old or old-fashioned building. In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cosy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location.

• Example: Since buying the cottage, they have enjoyed a quieter lifestyle.

Courtyard house

A courtyard house is a type of house—often a large house—where the main part of the building is disposed around a central courtyard.

• Example: We based our proposal upon a traditional Chinese courtyard house typology.

Detached house

A house that is not joined to any other house.

• Example: We live in a three-bedroom detached house in the suburbs.

Dormitory/ dorm

A dormitory (often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university students.

• Example: He was reading a math textbook in the dormitory.

Farmhouse

A farmhouse is a building that serves as the primary residence in a rural or agricultural setting.

• Example: The only access to the farmhouse is across the fields.

Gable front house

A gable front house, also known as a front gable house, is a vernacular (or “folk”) house type in which the gable is facing the street or entrance side of the house. Many gablefront houses contain front porches.

• Example: I really like a gable front house.

Hut

A hut is a small house with only one or two rooms, especially one which is made of wood, mud, grass, or stones.

• Example: The hut is in the midst of the forest.

Igloo

An igloo, also known as a snow house or snow hut, is a type of shelter built of snow, typically built when the snow is easy to compact.

• Example: The family stayed warm inside their igloo.

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.

• Example: A lighthouse marks the entrance to the harbour.

Manor

A manor house or fortified manor-house is a country house, which has historically formed the centre of a manor; the principal house of a landed estate.

• Example: It was the quintessence of an English manor house.

Mansion

A mansion is a large dwelling house. Manor comes from the same root.

• Example: The mansion had an atmosphere of genteel elegance and decay.

Mobile home/ trailer

A mobile home (also trailer, trailer home, house trailer, static caravan, residential caravan) is a prefabricated structure, built in a factory on a permanently attached chassis before being transported to site (either by being towed or on a trailer). Used as permanent homes, or for holiday or temporary accommodation, they are left often permanently or semi-permanently in one place, but can be moved, and may be required to move from time to time for legal reasons.

• Example: In the summer her mobile home heats up like an oven.

Semi-detached house

A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single-family dwelling house built as one of a pair that share one common wall. Often, each house’s layout is a mirror image of the other.

• Example: Jack Stone appeared between the semi-detached houses across the street.

Skyscraper/high-rise

A skyscraper is a continuously habitable high-rise building that has over 40 floors and is taller than approximately 150 m.

• Example: From the top of the skyscraper, the cars below us looked like insects.

Split-level

A split-level home (also called a tri-level home) is a style of house in which the floor levels are staggered. There are typically two short sets of stairs, one running upward to a bedroom level, and one going downward toward a basement area.

• Example: There John built his own split-level house with electricity and plumbing.

Tent

A portable shelter made of cloth, supported by one or more poles and stretched tight by cords or loops attached to pegs driven into the ground.

• Example: We just need a tent supported on a rigid framework.

Terraced houses

A house built as part of a continuous row in a uniform style; a row house.

• Example: His home is two terraced houses knocked together, each the mirror image of the other.

Tower

A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures.

• Example: The tower is fifty feet in height.

Tree house

A tree house, tree fort or tree shed is a platform or building constructed around, next to or among the trunk or branches of one or more mature trees while above ground level. Tree houses can be used for recreation, work space, habitation, and observation.

• Example: I spent hours in our tree house when I was a kid.

Villa

A large and luxurious country house in its own grounds.

• Example: We are quartered in a beautiful villa.

Hotel

An establishment providing accommodations, meals, and other services for travelers and tourists.

• Example: The hotel can accommodate up to 500 guests.

Octagon house

Octagon houses were a unique house style briefly popular in the 1850s in the United States and Canada. They are characterised by an octagonal (eight-sided) plan, and often feature a flat roof and a veranda all round.

• Example: I think octagon houses were a unique house style.