1.
home, residence, house
A person's home or residence. Often used with the honorific prefix お to refer politely to someone else's home (お宅). Also used as a suffix to indicate someone's residence.
お宅はどちらですか。
Where is your home?
田中宅に荷物を届ける。
To deliver a package to the Tanaka residence.
自宅から会社まで電車で三十分かかる。
It takes thirty minutes by train from home to the office.
宅 is a somewhat formal word for home or residence. In everyday conversation, 家 or うち is more common.
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- お宅 (your home — polite; also "otaku" when written as a pronoun)
- 自宅 (one's own home)
- 在宅 (being at home)
- 宅配 (home delivery)
- 帰宅 (returning home)
USAGE:
As a standalone word, 宅 is primarily used as a suffix after family names (田中宅) or in compound words. お宅 is the polite form used to refer to another person's home, and is also used as a second-person pronoun in polite speech.