House vs Home – What’s the difference?

People often use the terms ‘home’ and ‘house’ interchangeably. While they can mean the same thing, their meanings significantly differ in different contexts. There lies a big psychological difference between house and home.

When you look at a building and identify it as your ‘house,’ you are just referring to the physical building, but when you call it your ‘home,’ you have an emotional meaning attached to it, which means you and your family belong to that place.

If we look at the basic or the formal definition of the two words, we see that both carry a similar meaning; a house refers to a building where a family or a person lives, and similarly, home refers to a house or a building where a family or a person lives.

So what makes a house different from a home?

House vs Home – Difference

A house is just a concrete building where someone lives. Houses can be of different shapes and sizes. It is an enclosed figure whose main objective is to provide a place to live. Now, if you buy or occupy a new building for you and your family, you call it a house; you buy a house. You do not buy a home.

So, the term house is referred to as a structure that can accommodate you and your family. It refers to the physical building that one lives in and not the overall condition of the place.

For example, any residential infrastructure project that a government department takes up is called a “housing project,” and the department is called a “housing board” and not a “homing board.” It is because they are concerned only about the concrete structure and not the dwellers related to it.

A home is where a person or a family has an emotional connection. While the meaning of a house is limited to its concrete structure, a home has a more spiritual meaning. It is not just about the building but more about the emotions living within it.

When you use the word home, you refer to a place where you have your family that you care about and live together. It is a place where there is comfort and understanding. It is not just a material base but a support base with which you have psychological connections.

To make it more distinct, the word home gives you a sense of belongingness. The term ‘home’ has a more abstract nature to it. It can refer to any place where there is love, affection, and bonding.

A home is an abstract.

When you say home, it does not necessarily have to mean a building. It can be any place in your mind. Home is an abstract thing. It is a place where you find peace and closely bond with your sentiments.

So we see a home is an attachment, but a house is not. A house can offer just space to live in, while a home can offer a sense of loyalty.

You turn a house into a home and not the other way around.