mansion

mansion — noun

1. A very big house belonging to wealthy people, often with many bedrooms, a garden

1.nounB1
Definition

A very big house belonging to wealthy people, often with many bedrooms, a garden, and extra buildings for guests or staff.

Example

The old red-brick mansion at the edge of town has been empty for years.

Mateo's family turned their country mansion into a hotel with a spa and golf course.

collocation: turn + [place] + into + [new use]

Common collocations
  • old / historic / crumbling / luxurious / beachfront / country / Victorian / Gothic mansion
  • own / buy / sell / build / restore / inherit a mansion
  • live in / move into a mansion
  • a mansion with a pool / garden / private cinema / gate
Synonyms
  • manor

    historically tied to a landed estate; more old-fashioned, often refers to the main building on a farm or estate

  • estate

    refers to the house together with its land and outbuildings, not just the building itself

  • villa

    a large house in the countryside or by the sea, usually less grand than a mansion and often used as a holiday home

Antonyms
  • shack

    a very small, poorly built home

  • cottage

    a small, simple house, often in the countryside

Grammar Patterns

a/an + adjective + mansion

mansion + [prepositional phrase]

Usage Note

Frequently modified by adjectives describing size, age, or location (old, Victorian, beachfront, country). Unlike 'house', 'mansion' always implies luxury and grand scale — calling an ordinary large home a 'mansion' sounds exaggerated.

Common Mistakes

They bought a big new house and called it a mansion.
They bought a big new house
it was comfortable, but not really a mansion.' — 'mansion' implies wealth and grandeur, not just size.
We rented a villa in Spain for the summer and called it a mansion.
We rented a villa in Spain for the summer.
A villa is a holiday home, often smaller and less grand than a mansion.

Word family

  • mansion house
    nounB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words describe large homes, but they differ in association and scale. 'Mansion' emphasises luxury and cost — it is the most broadly used term for any very large, wealthy home. 'Manor' carries historical weight, often referring to the main house of a rural estate with farmland around it; it sounds more old-fashioned and British. 'Estate' includes the land and all buildings together (the house, gardens, stables, farmland) — you can own a mansion on an estate, but the estate is the entire property. 'Villa' is typically used for a holiday or retirement home in a warm climate, usually smaller and less imposing than a mansion. For example, a billionaire's main residence is a 'mansion', a country squire's ancestral home is a 'manor', a celebrity's getaway in Tuscany is a 'villa', and the whole property including its land is an 'estate'.

mansion ↗manor ↗estate ↗villa ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • dream mansion
  • family mansion
  • ancestral mansion
  • stately mansion

Prepositions

  • in a mansion
  • at a mansion

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchEnglish

From Latin 'mansio' meaning 'a staying, a dwelling place', via Old French 'mansion'. In English, the word originally meant 'a place to stay or live in', but by the 14th century it had shifted to mean 'a large, grand house' — reflecting the idea that a wealthy person's home was a permanent and impressive dwelling.