# En suite bathroom or master bathroom



## Oswinw011

Hi, 
Today a friend told me this is a master bathroom as in the picture, while I searched online and got the link as follows, which brought up another word "ensuite bathroom". Are they the same? Thanks. What Does ‘En Suite’ Really Mean?


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## Barque

"En suite" means "attached". Any bathroom that's attached to a bedroom is an en suite bathroom. The master bathroom is specifically the bathroom attached to the master bedroom which is the main bedroom or, if you like, the one meant for use by the "master(s)" of the house or apartment.


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## lingobingo

The master bathroom is the main one. It’s relatively unusual for it to be en suite (intended for the exclusive use of whoever sleeps in a particular bedroom), for obvious reasons.


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## Barque

lingobingo said:


> It’s relatively unusual


You probably meant to type "usual".


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## kentix

In the U.S. it works like Barque says. In a single-family home, the master bedroom is the biggest bedroom and is typically used by the parents. The bathroom that opens off that bedroom (if there is one) and is meant for the private use of the parents is called the master bathroom (usually just "master bath").

If a house has a master bath (newer houses usually do), there is a second bathroom meant for everyone else, including children and visitors, which opens directly off a hallway. There could even be a third "guest" bathroom with no shower or bathtub. That's common downstairs in a two-story house where the other bathrooms are upstairs.

People here don't generally say en suite, in my experience. But maybe they do in very high end houses because it sounds French and fancy. In a very large house it's easy to imagine a second bedroom with an attached bathroom that is not a master bedroom/master bathroom.


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## lingobingo

Barque said:


> You probably meant to type "usual".


Absolutely not.

I mean that in the UK the master bathroom is rarely, if ever, en suite, because it’s the one meant for the use of everyone in the house or flat.


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## Barque

Oh ok. That's how houses and apartments used to be in India too but now it's closer to the American style that Kentix describes, though not exactly the same.


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## Edinburgher

lingobingo said:


> I mean that in the UK the master bathroom is rarely, if ever, en suite, because it’s the one meant for the use of everyone in the house or flat.



Most ordinary family homes in the UK only have one bathroom.  It would indeed therefore be used by everyone and not be ensuite to the master bedroom, but because there is only one, it would simply be called "*the* bathroom", and not the "main bathroom", let alone "master bathroom".

The term "master bathroom" really only makes sense as one that is intended for the exclusive use of the "master", and it would then be usual for it to be ensuite to the master bedroom; indeed it would be unusual for it not to be, since it would then tend to lose its exclusivity.


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## Roxxxannne

A bathroom in the US that is for the use of everyone in the house or flat would just be called 'the bathroom' or, if there are two in the house or flat, they'd be called the upstairs bathroom and the downstairs bathroom, or the blue bathroom and the yellow bathroom, or the big bathroom and the little bathroom, etc.  'Master bathroom means that it's supposedly for the exclusive use of the people who sleep in the master bedroom.


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## london calling

lingobingo said:


> Absolutely not.
> 
> I mean that in the UK the master bathroom is rarely, if ever, en suite, because it’s the one meant for the use of everyone in the house or flat.


That isn't the master bathroom for me. That's the family bathroom. The master bathroom to me is for the exclusive use of those who sleep in the master bedroom (partners or a married couple, usually). I for example have a master bathroom and a family bathroom here in my home in Italy.

In any case the master bathroom isn't necessarily en suite, but it could be.
Edit. I mean in BE.


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## lingobingo

Well, we seem to use different terminology. 

I would never even use the term master bathroom, in practice. I see it as the reserve of estate agents.


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## london calling

I suppose it depends how many bathrooms you have. A 1930s semi in London such as the one my parents own will often only have one big bathroom (with maybe a loo and hand basin downstairs) , which is therefore necessarily the family bathroom.


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## Roxxxannne

lingobingo said:


> Well, we seem to use different terminology.
> 
> I would never even use the term master bathroom, in practice. I see it as the reserve of estate agents.


I wouldn't use it either in real life.


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## Egmont

To this AE speaker, "master bathroom" is the standard way to refer to an ensuite bathroom for the master bedroom. Not every home has one, of course, but if one does, I don't know what else to call it.


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## london calling

Roxxxannne said:


> I wouldn't use it either in real life.


I probably wouldn't either, but given we're talking about the distinction between the various terms.... 😊


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## kentix

In my experience, parents generally refer to it as "our" or "my" bathroom (depending on context) when referring to it to kids or others.

"You can take a shower in our bathroom."


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## london calling

Yes, that's what we say as well.


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## JulianStuart

En suite and master are, apparently, quite modern terms.  I have no idea how many "books" containing "descriptions of houses for sale" are in the Ngram database, but "en suite" was wildly popular in the 80s in the GB books, far exceeding the "master" rise in the US.  After that, things get muddier, with the database limitations of which English being based on location of publication rather than type of English used.  As a point of reference, I had never heard the term "en suite" when I left the UK in 75 and only when I was (fortunate enough to be) looking to buy a house in the US in the 90s did I come across the term master bath(room) as the one solely for the use of those using the master bedroom.


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## london calling

Yes, it's definitely a pretty recent phenomenon. My mother was brought up in a Victorian three-floor terrace in London with only an outside toilet. If you wanted a bath you either filled up a tin bath in the scullery or you went along to the local Public Baths. We lived with my nan for a while in the 60s when we returned from Australia. I'll never forget the huge marble bathtubs with massive taps down at the Baths. And the huge towels and bars of soap they gave you. It was like taking a sauna, though. No ventilation. 😊

Terms such as master /family bathroom/en suite would have been incomprehensible to my nan at the time.


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## Packard

Roxxxannne said:


> I wouldn't use it either in real life.


Or "en suite" for that matter.  

I generally hear "guest bathroom" for a full bath that is not designated for the master bedroom.  Or "powder room" if it is just a sink and toilet.  

Some expensive luxury homes have more than one en suite bedroom/bathroom.  

And then there is the "Jack and Jill" bathroom which has two entry doors attached to two different bedrooms (or to one bedroom and a hallway entry).


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## JulianStuart

Packard said:


> Or "en suite" for that matter.
> 
> I generally hear "guest bathroom" for a full bath that is not designated for the master bedroom.  Or "powder room" if it is just a sink and toilet.
> 
> Some expensive luxury homes have more than one en suite bedroom/bathroom.
> 
> And then there is the "Jack and Jill" bathroom which has two entry doors attached to two different bedrooms (or to one bedroom and a hallway entry).


 
It seems from the Ngams that "en suite" is a "Britishism" that has crept into AE


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## Packard

JulianStuart said:


> It seems from the Ngams that "en suite" is a "Britishism" that has crept into AE


I which it would slither on back.  We have enough shisms as it is.


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## Oswinw011

Sorry to chip in. I just found this in the linked passage: "While most en suite bathrooms can be found in a master bedroom, that doesn’t mean that’s the only place where they can be located throughout the house, as there can be other bedrooms that have a private bathroom attached to it as well, but that’s less likely".

Does it mean when people say, "ensuite bathroom", they usually mean "master bathroom"?(despite the fact that ensuite bathroom may be a bathroom in other non master room )


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## kentix

To me, en suite sounds like a generic term meaning "attached". It doesn't tell you whether it's a master bathroom.


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## Packard

Oswinw011 said:


> Sorry to chip in. I just found this in the linked passage: "While most en suite bathrooms can be found in a master bedroom, that doesn’t mean that’s the only place where they can be located throughout the house, as there can be other bedrooms that have a private bathroom attached to it as well, but that’s less likely".
> 
> Does it mean when people say, "ensuite bathroom", they usually mean "master bathroom"?(despite the fact that ensuite bathroom may be a bathroom in other non master room )



It is rare for a home to have more than one en suite bathroom.  But some very expensive homes could have "five ensuite bathroom/bedrooms" plus additional bathrooms for use during the day.  Since a new bathroom adds upwards of $20,000.00 to the cost of a home, it is an expense that most do not want to underwrite.


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## Barque

Oswinw011 said:


> Does it mean when people say, "ensuite bathroom", they usually mean "master bathroom"?


It depends on context. 


Barque said:


> Any bathroom that's attached to a bedroom is an en suite bathroom.


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## JulianStuart

Packard said:


> I which it would slither on back.  We have enough shisms as it is.


I'd place the blame on real estate agents forcing it on an unsuspecting AE population


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## Hermione Golightly

> That isn't the master bathroom for me. That's the family bathroom.



Same here. It's 7 years since we perused estate agents' descriptions. I think I would recall seeing 'master bathroom' and wondering exactly what was meant.


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## lingobingo

Any bathroom, or just loo and washbasin, or shower room, whose door opens into a bedroom is considered en suite in the UK. On my planet anyway.


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## london calling

Oswinw011 said:


> Sorry to chip in. I just found this in the linked passage: "While most en suite bathrooms can be found in a master bedroom, that doesn’t mean that’s the only place where they can be located throughout the house, as there can be other bedrooms that have a private bathroom attached to it as well, but that’s less likely".
> 
> Does it mean when people say, "ensuite bathroom", they usually mean "master bathroom"?(despite the fact that ensuite bathroom may be a bathroom in other non master room )


An en suite bathroom doesn't have to be attached to the master bedroom. Any bathroom which is attached to a bedroom is en suite.


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## JulianStuart

london calling said:


> An en suite bathroom doesn't have to be attached to the master bedroom. Any bathroom which is attached to a bedroom is ens suite.


 
We've stayed in quite a few B&B (Bed and breakfast) places in the UK (long before Airbnb) and many have several rooms advertised with "en suite bathroom" - it simply means attached.  I've not seen enough instances in AE to know whether it is reserved for mater bathrooms.


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## Edinburgher

JulianStuart said:


> many have several rooms advertised with "en suite bathroom" - it simply means attached.


"Several" implying that the rest of the rooms did not have private bathrooms (or toilets, for that matter) and that you had to go along the corridor to facilities shared with  *other guests*.


> mater bathrooms.


No, no.  Those are the ones reserved for mothers.  No dads allowed.


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## JulianStuart

Edinburgher said:


> "Several" implying that the rest of the rooms did not have private bathrooms (or toilets, for that matter) and that you had to go along the corridor to facilities shared with  *other guests*.


Indeed. My wife, who is American and largely unfamiliar with that concept, always preferred establishments with en suite bathrooms (or at the very least toilet and sink).


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## london calling

Edinburgher said:


> No, no.  Those are the ones reserved for mothers.  No dads allowed.


Well.,you could have a bathroom reserved for both mater and pater. 🤣


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## Bonjules

Fancy term ('en suite), not commen until recenty (?).
Means, as was pointed out, 'attached'.
Can be the 'master bathroom' but not necessarily so.
I appraised a lot of homes in the US West in the 70's; the 'Master Bathroom' was simply the biggest, fanciest bathroomin the house, usually near the
Master Bedroom but not necessarily attached to it (often it wasn't).
Just like you could have a 'Guest Room with (private) bathroom attached/'en suite' .


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## JulianStuart

Bonjules said:


> Fancy term ('en suite), not commen until recenty (?).
> Means, as was pointed out, 'attached'.
> Can be the 'master bathroom' but not necessarily so.
> I appraised a lot of homes in the US West in the 70's; the 'Master Bathroom' was simply the biggest, fanciest bathroomin the house, usually near the
> Master Bedroom but not necessarily attached to it (often it wasn't).
> Just like you could have a 'Guest Room with (private) bathroom attached/'en suite' .


It was not that commonly used back then and may have become more specific in its meaning to the one apparenlty favoured now: en suite to the master bedroom, following the increase of _that_ term.


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## Bonjules

JulianStuart said:


> It was not that commonly used back then and may have become more specific in its meaning to the one apparenlty favoured now: en suite to the master bedroom, following the increase of _that_ term.


It is not clear from the graph what population was sampled or how big the net for 'use of language' was cast.
All I know is that in the exploding Real Estate market in the 70's in California we used the terms Master Bedroom/Bathroom all the time,
not only amongst ourselves but with clients. For the existing homes (from that time and after) I doubt that the terminology will have changed much.


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## kentix

We moved into a rural/suburban three bedroom brick ranch house in the American South in 1969. There were whole neighborhoods of them. (I assume the design originated on ranches and farms.)

A ranch house in that era was a longish (linear), single-story house that was quite simple in design. In our case, kitchen/dining room/den/living room on one end, then a hallway into the other end with three bedrooms and a bathroom. But my parents in their corner bedroom also had their own bathroom. But it was quite small and certainly not luxurious like many are now. I don't know if anyone dared to call it a master bathroom back then, although technically it was.

I don't think my parents have lived in a house since that didn't have one. (Except maybe the house they just moved into.)


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## JulianStuart

Bonjules said:


> It is not clear from the graph what population was sampled or how big the net for 'use of language' was cast.
> All I know is that in the exploding Real Estate market in the 70's in California we used the terms Master Bedroom/Bathroom all the time,
> not only amongst ourselves but with clients. For the existing homes (from that time and after) I doubt that the terminology will have changed much.


The Ngram database is almost certainly bigger than this "In a nutshell, Ngram Viewer lets you find and visualize how words and phrases have developed and been used over time using the 30 million print books Google has scanned working with libraries located around the world as its dataset.Oct 18, 2012". The recent update includes corpora from 2019 but I don't know how many more texts were included.  Assignment of language is based (sadly) on publication location, rather than any examination of the English used. I wrote to them suggesting a re-classification based on spelling shibboleths but got no reply - with computers these days it should not be too onerous to run an algorithm for the purpose. It has its limitations, of course, but for medium and coarse comparisons or trends, it is useful.  It cannot, as you might imagine, separate California usage from Nebraska usage, for example.

As to your comment, the graph  does not say the term was rare.  The 70s saw a significant _increase_ in the usage of the term from the 60s, and the fact that it has grown since then is not inconsistent with your experience*.  The value on the Y-axis reflects the frequency of occurrence in the database.  There are many variables, too: the number of houses built in any particular year will affect the number of real estate descriptions or passages in fiction etc in that year, which could influence how likely they are to have been included in the accumulation of texts to that point or since then.

*Added: It's even possible that it was popular in California first, and spread from there.  Wasn't the CA housing market exploding then?


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## JulianStuart

kentix said:


> But my parents in their corner bedroom also had their own bathroom.


 Could you enter that bathroom without going through their bedroom? If not, it was en suite. The term "master" was less frequently used (in the database) than today and your experience reflects that.  It was just "their bathroom", like the comments of others above - especially BE speakers


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## kentix

Nope, only through their bedroom.


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## Ponyprof

When I was growing up, suburban houses typically had one bathroom, unless you fixed up your basement and added an extra bathroom. 

These days it is not uncommon for new apartments, townhouses, or single family houses to have multiple bathrooms, for instance an en suite for each bedroom plus a "powder room" (tiny sink/toilet) on the main floor and a full bathroom in the basement (so you can rent the basement as a separate suite). Bathrooms have been multiplying so fast that I'm sure the terminology is in flux.

I would say "en suite" for any bedroom that had its own bathroom attached. I would say "master bedroom" with "ensuite bathroom" or "master bathroom." 

If the house just had one shared bathroom plus a master bathroom, I'd call the shared bathroom the "main bathroom."

However, with real estate it's important to realize that styles of home change quite a bit decade to decade, and vary a lot between different markets, even different communities in the same metropolitan region. Terminology also changes a lot between regions.

So there is no 100% correct answer that will hold across all housing markets in the English speaking world. And expect the terms to change over time in any given market.


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## sdgraham

kentix said:


> To me, en suite sounds like a generic term meaning "attached". It doesn't tell you whether it's a master bathroom.


I had never heard the term _en suite_ before I worked in London '85-'86. When i did learn it, in was in the context of a hotel room with bath, thus obviating a morning stroll down the hallway in search of ablution.


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## JulianStuart

sdgraham said:


> I had never heard the term _en suite_ before I worked in London '85-'86. When i did learn it, in was in the context of a hotel room with bath, thus obviating a morning stroll down the hallway in search of ablution.



Right around the peak of the BE usage, according to the Ngrams.  It's quite within the realm of possibiloity that people began to feel it was rather posh, twee or at least overused, and it decreased in popularity as a result.


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## Barque

Packard said:


> there is the "Jack and Jill" bathroom which has two entry doors attached to two different bedrooms


I have come across one where one of the two bedrooms was the master bedroom.

There was a third bedroom with an exclusive bathroom but I wouldn't call that the master bedroom because it was one of the bedrooms attached to the Jack and Jill that was by far the biggest of the three, and the only one with a view. (And it was the one used by the masters.)


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## Bonjules

I never really thought about the term 'Master bedroom' much.  But now I wonder whether it comes
from the 'Master's ' bedroom...  ?
(That in turn could also explain the variant where the attached master bathroom opens to other bedrooms - maybe the ones
where Betty and Sally were sleeping?)


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