A
roommate is a person who shares a living facility such as an
apartment or
dormitory. Similar terms include
suitemate,
housemate,
flatmate ("flat": the usual term in
British English for an
apartment - in New Zealand, "flatmate" is solely used, regardless of whether the dwelling is an apartment or a detached house), or
sharemate (shared living spaces are often called
sharehomes in Australia and other Commonwealth countries). A
sharehome is a model of
household in which a group of usually unrelated people reside together. The term generally applies to people living together in
rental properties rather than in properties in which any resident is an
owner occupier. In the UK, the term "roommate" means a person living in the same
bedroom, whereas in the United States and Canada, "roommate" and "housemate" are used interchangeably regardless whether a bedroom is shared, although it is common in US universities that having a roommate implies sharing a room together. This article uses the term "roommate" in the US sense of a person one shares a
residence with who is not a relative or
significant other. The informal term for roommate is
roomie, which is commonly used by university students.