What does cloakroom mean?
A cloakroom is a room set aside in a public building — a theatre, hotel, museum, railway station, or conference centre — where visitors may temporarily leave coats, hats, umbrellas, and sometimes luggage. The service is often staffed by an attendant who issues a ticket in exchange for deposited items, and the word readily appears in phrases such as 'cloakroom attendant' and 'cloakroom ticket'. In British English, cloakroom has a second, entirely different everyday meaning: a toilet or washroom, particularly one in a private home or small public building. This dual usage occasionally causes confusion for American visitors, who know the room where coats are checked as a checkroom or coatroom. The word derives from 'cloak', the long outer garment once universally worn, combined with 'room'. Though the garment itself has largely fallen out of fashion, the cloakroom survives wherever people need somewhere safe to leave their things.
nounA room or space in a public building, such as a theatre, hotel, or station, where coats, hats, and other personal belongings may be left temporarily. In British English, the term also commonly refers to a public toilet or washroom.
- A room in a public building where coats, hats, and luggage may be temporarily stored.
- (British English) A public toilet or washroom, especially in a house or public building.
"She handed her coat to the attendant in the theatre's cloakroom before taking her seat."
"Please collect your belongings from the cloakroom before the museum closes."
"The guests asked where they could find the cloakroom."
"He checked his suitcase into the station cloakroom for the afternoon."
Regular plural; used when referring to multiple such rooms, e.g. across different buildings or floors.
"Both cloakrooms on the ground floor were renovated last year."
In Britain, asking for the 'cloakroom' might get you directions to the toilet rather than somewhere to hang your coat.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cloakroom
Cloakroom is a straightforward English compound of 'cloak' and 'room', first appearing in the nineteenth century as public venues began offering formal coat-storage services. The word 'cloak' itself entered Middle English from Anglo-Norman and Old North French 'cloque', ultimately deriving from Medieval Latin 'clocca', a word that also gave rise to 'clock' and 'cloche' — originally referring to a bell-shaped garment or object. The compound thus pairs a Romance-language borrowing with a native Germanic word, a pattern typical of English vocabulary formation.
How cloakroom is actually used
The 'storage room' sense is common in theatres, hotels, stations, and museums on both sides of the Atlantic, though American English favours checkroom or coatroom. The toilet sense is chiefly British and can surprise American visitors; context usually makes the intended meaning clear.
Easily confused with cloakroom
Checkroom is the standard American English term for what British speakers call a cloakroom — a place to leave coats and bags.
A cloak is a loose outer garment worn over the shoulders, whereas a cloakroom is the room where such garments and other belongings are stored.