A boardinghouse is a place where people rent rooms and usually receive meals as part of their arrangement. Unlike a hotel where you might stay for a few nights, boarders typically live in a boardinghouse for weeks, months, or even years. The person who runs it, called a landlady or landlord, often provides breakfast and dinner along with a furnished room.

Boardinghouses were especially common in the 1800s and early 1900s, when young people moved to cities for work but couldn't afford their own apartments. Factory workers, teachers, shop clerks, and students would rent a room in a large house, eat meals together at a common table, and share sitting rooms in the evenings. It was like living with a temporary family of strangers.

You might encounter boardinghouses in classic books like Little Women, where Jo March moves to a New York boardinghouse while trying to become a writer. The setup gave people an affordable place to live while they were starting out, and the shared meals meant they didn't have to cook for themselves. Today, boardinghouses are less common in some places, and in others they follow rules and licensing like other housing.