What is the difference among 'dormitorio', 'recámara', 'alcoba' and 'habitación'?

Question

What are the differences among these words?

• dormitorio
• recámara
• alcoba
• habitación

The dictionary says they all mean "bedroom"; I suspect it's a regional/dialectical thing.

What are these words used for in your country/region and which of these is the most common one for "bedroom" in your country?

Please do mention your country so I know which dialect we are talking about.

Answer 1

In Mexico... all 4 words are used for bedroom:

Recámara also means chamber (the part of a pistol)

Alcoba as @rodrigo says, is only used in books, novels and so on, although in some places (like hotels) you can find alcoba matrimonial referring to a wedding suite.

Dormitorio could be "dorm", a place when you find lots of beds

Habitación could be any room, just a place surrounded by 4 walls

Cuarto also means bedroom but has other meanings like "the fourth part of something" (Un cuarto the kilo - 1/4 kilo)

Answer 2

I'm from Northern Spain.

Here the most common word is habitación:

¡Vete a tu habitación! _{Go to your bedroom!}

However, in books and on TV, cuarto is probably more often seen and heard:

¡Vete a tu cuarto!

Both are used with a possesive, thus tu habitación and tu cuarto means your bedroom or your room.

But without the possesive, they may refer to any room, so in these cases dormitorio is used:

Se vende una casa con 4 dormitorios. _{House sold with 4 bedrooms.}

alcoba sounds archaic. It can be used for rhetoric, poetic turns of phrase, or humoristic effect, except when it refers metaphorically to a marriage (or some similar relationship status in which a bed is shared), particularly in the idiom:

Problemas de alcoba. _{Marriage issues.}

recámara is almost never used.

Answer 3

Here in Chile we say pieza or dormitorio. Almost never habitación, and never, never alcoba, cuarto or recámara.

Answer 4

They may all have exactly the same meaning, they do not all have the same context.

Cuarto - Quarters. Living quarters. It's a very ancient term in English, but it still lingers in the spanish language.

Recámara, to me, makes me think of a hotel room, or a room for rent.

Alcoba, I have never heard, but judging from the others' attempt to translate it, I find it to mean nothing more than a room. Not a bedroom in particular, but rather just a room.

Aula is something I know has classroom.

Habituación sounds like a very proper, fancy way to refer to a bedroom; I can see why it would be used in Spain.

Dormitorio is exactly what you would think it is, a dormitory. In English, the word dormitory or domicile are very proper names for a bedroom.

So again, even though they all mean the same thing, they deserve their contexts.

Answer 5

I'm from Argentina and we say pieza to mean "bedroom".