homebody

A homebody is a person who enjoys being at home and doing activities that center around the home.

If your ideal day includes staying home and working on home improvement projects, indulging in hobbies, or reading and playing video games, you might call yourself a homebody. While homebodies go out with friends and travel, their preference is staying at home, often alone or with close family. That preference is important.

Sometimes homebody is applied to people with a mental illness, like agoraphobia, or a physical disability that keeps them at home, but that would be inaccurate. A homebody prefers to stay at home. If a disability keeps someone at home most of the time when they’d rather be traveling the world, for example, they are not a homebody. Equally, if someone is always away from home because they have to be but they want to be home, they still might call themselves a homebody.

Example: Marvin was a real homebody, preferring to spend his days cooking in his kitchen for his family and friends.

The first records of the term homebody come from around the 1810s. It is an Americanism that combines the terms home and body.

While a homebody likely sees themselves in a positive light because being a homebody makes them happy, not all people and cultures value homebodies equally. Whether homebodies are valued depends on a person’s or culture’s values.

For example, a culture that values growing and cooking your own food, making your own clothes, and similar activities would see being a homebody as a positive because people would be home doing these things. A culture that strongly emphasizes working outside of the home, attending a lot of social events, and traveling extensively might see being a homebody negatively.

When we can better understand how individuals can have different skills and different needs, we can better accept the differences between us, whether that’s preferring to be at home or out and about.

What are some other forms related to homebody?

• homebodies (plural)

What are some words that share a root or word element with homebody? 

• home
• body
• somebody
• homeboy

What are some words that often get used in discussing homebody?

• cooking
• reading
• introvert
• hobbies

Homebody is commonly used in casual conversation to describe someone who prefers staying home.

guys 🥺 been trying to push myself to go out more bc i’m really a homebody but i can genuinely say i’ve been having so much fun 🥺💕

— Chlöe (@ChloeBailey) June 28, 2021

I’m such a homebody – it’s unhealthy

— zel (@denzeldion) February 8, 2020

Man I like being a homebody and I’m really ok with that.

— Breiden Fehoko (@breidenfehoko4) May 8, 2021

True or False?

A homebody is someone who prefers to travel a lot.