A laundromat is a business where people pay to use washing machines and dryers to clean their clothes. Unlike doing laundry at home, you bring your dirty clothes to the laundromat, buy time on the machines using coins or a card, and wait while your clothes wash and dry.

Laundromats became popular in America in the 1930s and 1940s, when many people lived in apartments without their own washing machines. Before laundromats, people washed clothes by hand or hired someone else to do it, which took much more time and effort.

Today, people use laundromats for different reasons. College students living in dorms might visit one weekly. Families washing large items like comforters or sleeping bags use laundromat machines because they’re bigger than home washers. Some people simply prefer the efficiency of washing multiple loads at once rather than waiting for several cycles at home.

In British English, a similar place is often called a launderette. You might also hear older people call it a washateria, though that term is less common today.