villa
- 1A house in the countryside or on the coast, often larger and more expensive than average and often used as a retreat.
They rented a villa on the Amalfi Coast for two weeks in July.
The billionaire spends his summers at a hilltop villa overlooking the vineyards.
UsageCommon with holidays: rent a villa, a villa in Tuscany, a villa on the coast.
Note
Its look can be part of the point: Michael Arlen, in “Piracy” (1922), admires one that is long, low and white, free of the conical towers, domed roofs and crenellations he mocks as playful ebullitions of taste.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Michael Arlen wrote Piracy. gutenberg.org
- Piracy was first published in 1922. gutenberg.org
- The novel approvingly describes a villa as long, low and white. gutenberg.org
- The villa lacks the architectural features described mockingly as playful ebullitions of taste. gutenberg.org
- 2In ancient Rome, a country house with farm buildings arranged around a courtyard.
Archaeologists uncovered the remains of a Roman villa, its barns and storerooms set around a central courtyard.
The senator's villa supplied his household in the city with grain, wine, and olive oil.
Note
Historians use the word in its Roman sense, borrowed straight from Latin vīlla rather than by way of the Italian country retreat. The Roman villa was a working farm as much as a home, which is what the courtyard of farm buildings shows; a reader who pictures a holiday house will miss that the place earned its keep.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Villa in the ancient Roman sense is a direct borrowing from Latin. en.wiktionary.org
- The Roman farm villa combined residential accommodation with a working agricultural estate. english-heritage.org.uk
- Such villas could have buildings arranged around a courtyard. english-heritage.org.uk
- Agricultural production provided income for working villa estates. archeologie.culture.gouv.fr
- 3A family house on a middle-class street, often semi-detached and built in the Victorian or Edwardian style.
They bought a Victorian villa on a quiet street near the park and spent a year restoring it.
The road is lined with red-brick villas, each with a bay window and a small front garden.
Note
In British suburbs the word comes down in the world: E. Nesbit's The Railway Children (1905) puts its ordinary family in a red-brick-fronted villa with colored glass in the front door and a tiled passage called a hall. Where the country retreat suggests money and escape, this one suggests respectability and a quiet family street.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- E. Nesbit wrote The Railway Children. en.wikisource.org
- The Railway Children appeared in 1905, as dated on the Macmillan title page. en.wikisource.org
- The novel describes an ordinary suburban family living in a red-brick-fronted villa with coloured front-door glass and a tiled passage called a hall. en.wikisource.org
Less common meaning
- 4A person's village, or the homeland of their ancestors.
When people ask where he's from, he names his villa in the east, not Lagos, where he actually grew up.
After twenty years in Lagos, he finally built a house back in his villa, where his ancestors are buried.
Note
Nigerian slang turns the grand word into a homely one: going to the villa means going back to the village your family comes from.
Practice
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Origins
Latin vīlla, a "country house," became Italian villa and from there came into English. It has two doublets, vill and ville.
The word was taken straight from Latin, in which vīlla meant a "country house." Two other English words, vill and ville, are doublets of it.