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Less common meanings

13. 13
    adverb

    Back to the main or starting page of a website or application.

    Pressing the round button takes you home from any screen.

    The keyboard shortcut sends the browser home in a single keystroke.

    Note

    Websites borrow the everyday adverb of going home whole: click here to go home, with no preposition and no article. The page is treated like a house you return to, and the instruction works from anywhere on the site. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • The website sense extends the ordinary directional adverb, retaining the construction 'go home'. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    fully feltadverb

    To a full and direct degree; right to the heart of the matter.

    The danger of the situation really came home to them.

    He drove the argument home with a vivid example.

    UsageSet phrases: hit home, strike home, drive a point home, bring something home to someone.

    Note

    Here the word reaches the mind rather than a place: an idea, a charge or a truth lands fully on its target. Older writers handled it more freely. Robert South writes of "how home the charge reaches us," and Richardson's Clarissa has "very home put." Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Samuel Richardson wrote Clarissa. gutenberg.org
    • Clarissa contains 'very home put'; the words occur in Mrs. Howe's letter to Charles Hickman. gutenberg.org
15. 15
    end of a raceadverb

    All the way to the proper or final position: fully into place, or to the end of a course or race.

    On the final lap, she nursed her damaged car home in fourth place.

    The favorite led from the start, and her jockey rode her home three lengths ahead.

    UsageOften placed after an object: drive the nail home. Add right for emphasis: drive the nail right home.

    Note

    Here home means as far as something will go, the end of its travel rather than any house. Nails are driven home and cartridges rammed home. In Roald Dahl's Matilda, Lavender slides a pencil-box lid "right home," and Shakespeare's Othello already has "put it home" of a rapier. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Roald Dahl wrote Matilda. en.wikipedia.org
    • Shakespeare's Othello contains "put it home" referring to a rapier. internetshakespeare.uvic.ca
16. 16
    return (animals)verbintransitive

    To return to one's owner or base, as a navigating animal does.

    Carrier pigeons reliably home even from unfamiliar territory.

    The falcon homed to its handler at dusk.

    Similarreturn

    Note

    Said of animals that find their own way back, the verb takes no object: the dog homed. Because the owner is the destination, an animal can home to a person just as it homes to a place. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • An animal's homing destination can be its owner, as well as a place. about.illinoisstate.edu
17. 17
    afterlifenouncountable

    A poetic or religious word for the grave, or the eternal resting place of the soul after death.

    Six feet of earth would be his last home.

    On her tombstone the family carved a line about her eternal home.

    Similarheaven, rest, grave

    Note

    Death is pictured as a homecoming. The phrase that has carried the image longest is long home, familiar from the King James Bible's Ecclesiastes 12:5: "man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets." The usage belongs to elegy and hymn rather than everyday speech, where it softens the plain word grave. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Death is represented as going home. en.wikisource.org
    • The quoted wording occurs in Ecclesiastes 12:5 in the King James Bible. en.wikisource.org
18. 18
    user foldernounabbreviationclipping

    Clipping of home directory: on a computer, the folder assigned to one user for their own files and settings.

    The script copies your configuration files straight into your home.

    Each user account gets its own home on the system.

    Note

    Shortened from home directory, the directory that holds a user's own files. On Unix-like systems user accounts normally have one, and it is the default place for personal files and configuration data. People speak of copying something into home or keeping a file in their home. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • The computing noun home is shortened from home directory. en.wiktionary.org
    • A home directory holds a user's personal files. ichec.ie
    • Accounts can exist without a home directory; useradd can explicitly omit creating one, including for system accounts. manpages.debian.org
    • The home directory is the normal location for personal files. ichec.ie
    • User-specific configuration data is normally stored within the home directory. xdg.pages.freedesktop.org
19. 19
    tonic chordnouncolloquialuncountable

    In music, the tonic chord on which a melody begins and to which it naturally resolves.

    The bridge wanders through distant keys before the chorus pulls everything back home.

    A clean resolution makes listeners feel the tune has finally settled at home.

    Similartonic

    Note

    An informal musician's name for the tonic, the chord that establishes the key. It brings travel language with it. A melody sets out from home, wanders through other keys, and comes back home to resolve. Tonic remains the technical term, and home is the conversational one. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • The tonic chord provides the tonal center and a point of resolution. en.wikipedia.org
    • Departure from and return to the tonic can be described as a musical journey home. resources.lukecarlsonmusic.com
20. 20
    board game goalnouncountable or uncountable

    In board games, the final point or space that a piece must reach to complete its course.

    In ludo, every piece must reach home before a player can win.

    Each player races four pawns around the board to the home painted in their own color.

    Note

    In many board games each player has a home of their own, the space their pieces set out to reach. In Sorry! the object is to get all four of your pawns to your home. That is why the word often takes a possessive in play, as in your home or each player's home. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Board games can give each player a separate home destination for their pieces. en.wikipedia.org
    • The objective in standard four-pawn Sorry! is to get all four pawns home. hasbro.com
    • Bare home is also standard in game instructions; the Sorry! rules repeatedly use it without a possessive. hasbro.com
21. 21
    into the goaladverbUK

    Into the goal, so as to complete a successful shot or score.

    He drove the loose rebound home from six yards out.

    The winger crossed and the captain headed it home.

    Similarin

    Oppositewide

    Note

    British football reporting uses home for the finish of a move. The verb names the kind of shot and home names the result: a player fires home or heads home. BBC Sport's report of Tottenham's 4–4 draw with Leicester in 2004 has Keane firing home after a blocked first effort. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Tottenham drew 4–4 with Leicester in 2004, and BBC reported the match. en.wikipedia.org
    • The BBC report describes Keane firing home after an initial effort was blocked. en.wiktionary.org
22. 22
    attacking positionnouncountable or uncountable

    In lacrosse, the attacking position stationed in front of the opponent's goal, or the player who fills it.

    Playing first home, she scored three goals from right in front of the crease.

    Their first home stood just outside the crease, waiting for a feed from the wings.

    Note

    Lacrosse names an attacking position after its place on the field, close in front of the opponent's goal. The word covers both the spot and the player standing in it, so a home is a teammate as much as a location. These attackers are often numbered first, second, and third home. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • In lacrosse, home denotes a position in front of the opposing goal and the player occupying it. en.wiktionary.org
    • The attacking positions include first, second, and third home. files.eric.ed.gov
23. 23
    bluntadjectivearchaic

    Striking directly at the essential point; direct and pointed in effect.

    After the season ended, the coach sat the players down and gave them a few home truths about their effort.

    The editorial's last paragraph was a home thrust aimed squarely at the mayor's broken promises.

    UsageToday almost only in home truth, an unwelcome fact said plainly.

    Note

    Older writers could even grade it, as in Walpole's "a more home push." The image is the one behind the adverb of striking home, where words reach their target. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • The pointed adjective shares its image with the adverb expressing direct effect. en.wiktionary.org
24. 24
    adjectiveobsolete

    Personal and intimate; concerning one's private or innermost affairs.

    Note

    Frances Burney, writing in 1778, could call painfully personal remarks "Home strokes." This sense of personal or intimate has since dropped out of use. It sat close to the "direct, pointed" adjective, and Burney's phrase shows the two meeting, since a stroke aimed at someone's private feelings is also one that hits its mark. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Burney's quoted use dates to writing from 1778. en.wiktionary.org
    • Burney used “Home strokes” for remarks that distressed her personally. en.wiktionary.org