“Homemade” is the correct spelling. It’s written as one word, with no space and no hyphen, whether it comes before a noun (“homemade bread”) or stands on its own (“the bread is homemade”). “Home made” as two separate words is incorrect. The mix-up happens because “home” and “made” are both ordinary words on their own, so it’s easy to forget they fused into a single compound generations ago — long before most style guides you use today even existed.
Quick Answer
| Form | Status |
|---|---|
| Homemade | Correct — the standard spelling in every modern dictionary and style guide |
| Home-made | Understood, but dated — mostly seen in older texts |
| Home made | Incorrect as a single descriptive word |
- Correct: My grandmother’s homemade jam always sells out first.
- Incorrect: My grandmother’s home made jam always sells out first.
The key difference: “home” and “made” work together as a single compound adjective, not two independent words, so they’re never separated by a space.
Homemade vs. Home Made vs. Home-Made: Comparison at a Glance
Homemade (one word) is the form every major current dictionary lists as standard — Merriam-Webster, Cambridge, and Collins all treat it as a single, fixed compound. It’s correct in every register, from a handwritten recipe card to a formal business report.
Home-made (hyphenated) was the more common printed form through the 1800s and into the early 1900s, and it still turns up in older books, some British publishing, and stylized packaging. It’s not wrong exactly, but it reads as dated next to the now-standard solid form.
Home made (two words, no hyphen) doesn’t have a legitimate use as a single descriptive term. When people write it this way, they’re not choosing a valid alternate spelling — they’re simply missing the fact that “home” and “made” no longer function as separate words in this meaning.
What Does “Homemade” Mean?
At its core, “homemade” describes something made or prepared in a home, by a person’s own effort, rather than manufactured or purchased ready-made. Food is the most common context — bread, soup, jam, granola — but the word applies just as naturally to crafts, gifts, remedies, and anything else put together domestically.
Beyond location, “homemade” usually carries a connotation of personal effort and care: it signals that someone chose the ingredients or materials and did the work themselves, rather than buying something mass-produced. That said, the word can occasionally cut the other way, hinting that something looks a little rough or improvised rather than professionally finished. Context decides which sense applies.
Word Origin: Where “Homemade” Comes From
“Homemade” is older than most people assume. The Oxford English Dictionary traces it to the mid-1500s, with an early citation from 1547 in an English-Welsh dictionary describing handwoven cloth, and another from 1564 in a translated religious text describing rules set by a local church body. At that point in English, spelling conventions for compound words weren’t standardized yet, so the same term could appear as two words, hyphenated, or solid — often within the same few decades.
That early instability is exactly why all three forms still circulate today. Word-frequency data from Google’s Ngram Viewer, which tracks usage across millions of scanned books, shows the hyphenated “home-made” as the dominant printed form through the 19th century, before the solid “homemade” overtook it by around the mid-20th century and has stayed dominant since. In other words: English didn’t invent a new rule to fix this word. It just kept using it until the space and the hyphen wore off.
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How to Pronounce “Homemade”
Syllable Breakdown
“Homemade” has two syllables: home + made.
- US: /ˌhoʊmˈmeɪd/
- UK: /ˌhəʊmˈmeɪd/
Said on its own, the stress typically falls on the second syllable (home-MADE). But right before a noun, English speakers often shift the stress forward — “HOME-made bread” rather than “home-MADE bread” — a normal pattern for compound adjectives sitting in front of a noun.
One more detail dictionaries note: the “m” sounds at the end of “home” and the start of “made” sit right next to each other, and many speakers blend them into a single sound in casual speech, so it can come out closer to “ho-MAYD.” Both the fuller and the blended pronunciation are recognized as natural variation, not an error.
Parts of Speech and Related Word Forms
“Homemade” is an adjective only — there’s no verb, noun, or adverb form of the word itself. It works attributively, right before a noun (“homemade soup”), and predicatively, after a linking verb (“the soup is homemade”). It isn’t a comparable adjective either: something either is or isn’t homemade, so forms like “more homemade” or “homemadest” aren’t standard.
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Adjective | homemade | She brought homemade cookies to the office. |
| Related noun | homemaker | He’s been the family’s homemaker for a decade. |
| Related noun/gerund | homemaking | Homemaking covers a lot more than cooking. |
| Verb form | (none exists) | — |
“Homemaker” and “homemaking” share the same root but function as their own separate words — they aren’t conjugations or forms of “homemade.”
Do You Need a Hyphen? Home-Made vs. Homemade
Short answer: no. “Homemade” doesn’t need a hyphen in any position, before or after a noun.
What AP, Chicago, and MLA Style Say
Neither the AP Stylebook nor the Chicago Manual of Style has a dedicated entry for “homemade,” and that’s actually the useful part of the answer. Both guides generally hyphenate compound adjectives before a noun only when the compound isn’t already fixed in the dictionary — words like “well-known” or “high-quality” that could otherwise be misread. Since Merriam-Webster (the reference dictionary both AP and Chicago typically defer to for spelling) already lists “homemade” as one solid word, it doesn’t count as a “temporary compound” that needs a hyphen for clarity. MLA follows the same general logic. The upshot: no major American style guide calls for hyphenating “homemade.”
UK vs. US Usage
Current dictionaries in both varieties of English agree. Cambridge Dictionary (UK-based) and Merriam-Webster (US-based) both list “homemade” as the standard spelling. Cambridge does note “home-made” as an accepted alternate spelling, and older or more traditional British publishing has historically leaned on the hyphen a bit more than American publishing — but that gap has narrowed substantially, and “homemade” is now the dominant form in both British and American writing.
Homemade in a Sentence: Examples
- Everyday: The kids handed out homemade valentines to their whole class.
- Food and menus: The café’s homemade granola is baked fresh every morning.
- Product description: Each starter kit includes a jar of homemade sourdough culture and a printed guide.
- Predicate use: Everything on this table is homemade — nothing came from a store.
- Labeling and regulation: In some places, food-safety rules restrict the word “homemade” to items actually prepared in a private kitchen, not a commercial one, so it’s worth checking local rules before printing it on packaging.
Common Misspellings of “Homemade”
The most frequent misspelling by far is homade — dropping one of the two “m” sounds. That’s not a random typo: as the pronunciation section above notes, several dictionaries recognize that the double “m” often blends into one in natural speech, so “homade” reflects how the word actually sounds to a lot of people, even if it isn’t the standard spelling.
Other misspellings worth knowing:
- hommade
- homemde
- hommeade
- homenade
There’s also a distinct error rooted in sound rather than spelling: some writers mentally reinterpret the word as “home maid,” picturing a household servant instead of a compound adjective. It’s an easy mistake to make purely by ear, and it’s part of why “home made” persists as two words even among careful writers.
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Common Mistakes to Avoid With “Homemade”
Mistake: Splitting it into two words Correct: We sell homemade granola bars. Incorrect: We sell home made granola bars. Explanation: As a single compound adjective, “homemade” never takes a space.
Mistake: Hyphenating it out of habit Correct: The bakery’s homemade sourdough sells out by 9 a.m. Incorrect (dated): The bakery’s home-made sourdough sells out by 9 a.m. Explanation: Not technically wrong, but hyphenating a word that’s been a fixed compound for generations reads as outdated in current writing.
Mistake: Using “homemade” for something made commercially Correct: The restaurant calls its sauce “housemade.” Incorrect: The restaurant’s homemade sauce won an award. Explanation: Strictly speaking, “homemade” means made in an actual home. Many businesses use “housemade” or “made in-house” instead, partly for accuracy and sometimes because of labeling rules.
Homemade vs. Handmade: What’s the Difference?
“Homemade” is about where something was made — a private home, as opposed to a factory or commercial kitchen. The method doesn’t matter; a stand mixer or a sewing machine is perfectly fine.
“Handmade” is about how something was made — by hand, without machine automation. The location doesn’t matter; something handmade could come from a home, a workshop, or even a small factory staffed by skilled artisans.
The two overlap constantly — a quilt hand-stitched at home is both homemade and handmade — but not always. Bread made at home in a bread machine is homemade without really being handmade, while a hand-carved bowl made in a professional workshop is handmade without being homemade. They’re close enough that casual speech often treats them as interchangeable, but if precision matters — product labeling, craft-fair rules, marketing copy — they’re testing two different things.
Homemade vs. Handmade Comparison Table
| Homemade | Handmade | |
|---|---|---|
| Tests | Where it was made | How it was made |
| Typical location | A private home | Anywhere — home, studio, workshop |
| Machines allowed | Yes | Generally no |
| Common use | Food, everyday goods | Jewelry, art, artisanal goods |
| Example | Homemade lasagna | Handmade ceramic mug |
Homemade vs. Home-Cooked: What’s the Difference?
“Home-cooked” is narrower than “homemade” — it applies only to food, and specifically to food actually cooked in a home kitchen. “Homemade” is broader: it covers food, but also crafts, gifts, and remedies, and even homemade food doesn’t always require cooking. A no-bake homemade energy ball or a homemade smoothie is homemade without being “cooked” in any real sense.
Put simply: all home-cooked food is homemade, but not all homemade food is home-cooked, and “homemade” extends well beyond food entirely.
Homemade vs. Store-Bought: What’s the Difference?
These two sit at opposite ends of the same idea. Homemade means made personally, usually in small quantities, with the maker choosing the ingredients or materials. Store-bought means manufactured or prepared commercially and purchased ready-made.
Homemade items are often associated with fresher ingredients and fewer additives, but that isn’t automatic — it depends entirely on what the maker actually uses. Store-bought wins on convenience and consistency: the same product tastes or performs the same way every time.
Homemade vs. Store-Bought Comparison Table
| Homemade | Store-Bought | |
|---|---|---|
| Who makes it | You, or someone you know | A manufacturer or commercial kitchen |
| Ingredients | Chosen by the maker | Standardized for shelf life |
| Consistency | Varies batch to batch | Consistent every time |
| Convenience | Takes time and effort | Ready immediately |
| Example | A homemade birthday cake | A boxed cake mix |
Synonyms and Related Terms for “Homemade”
Close synonyms include homespun, handcrafted, do-it-yourself (DIY), and made from scratch. For produce specifically, homegrown works well. More formal or marketing-leaning alternatives include artisanal, artisan-made, and small-batch. One near-synonym worth a caution: self-made usually describes a person’s success (“a self-made entrepreneur”), not an object, so it isn’t a direct substitute for “homemade” in most sentences.
Homemade vs. Housemade (Restaurant Menus)
“Housemade” (also written “house-made”) has become common on restaurant menus to describe something made on-site by the restaurant’s own kitchen — since a restaurant isn’t technically a home, calling its sauce or pickles “homemade” is a stretch. As of current dictionaries, “housemade” hasn’t yet been added to Merriam-Webster, though it does appear in some other references, including the American Heritage Dictionary. Use “homemade” for anything actually made in a private home; use “housemade,” “house-made,” or “made in-house” for anything made on-site by a business.
Beyond the Kitchen: Figurative and Extended Uses of “Homemade”
Food and crafts are the most common context, but “homemade” regularly shows up describing things that never went near an actual house. In each case, it keeps its core meaning — made independently, not manufactured or built by a professional outfit:
- News reports describing a “homemade explosive device”
- A small-business owner calling their first website a “homemade site” before hiring a developer
- A software team referring to an internal tool as a “homemade solution” instead of a purchased platform
None of these examples involve a kitchen or a home. What carries over is the idea of something built independently rather than produced commercially.
Memory Trick to Remember the Spelling
Here’s a simple way to remember it — a learning aid, not an official grammar rule: think of “homemade” the same way you think of other everyday compound words that lost their space over time, like bedroom, sunlight, or notebook. When two words are used together often enough to mean one single thing, English eventually merges them into one word — and “home” plus “made” finished that journey a long time ago. No space, no hyphen, just one word.
Practice: Home Made vs. Homemade Exercises
Choose the Correct Form
- The bakery down the street sells ______ pies every weekend. a) home made b) home-made c) homemade
- My uncle gave us a jar of ______ honey from his own bees. a) homemade b) home made c) Home Made
- Is this soup ______, or did you order it? a) home made b) homemade c) home Made
Multiple Choice Challenge
- Which sentence uses the word correctly? a) She wore a home made scarf to the party. b) She wore a homemade scarf to the party. c) She wore a home-Made scarf to the party.
- Which spelling would a modern dictionary list as standard? a) home made b) home-made c) homemade
Spot and Fix the Mistake
- Find and correct the error: “Grandpa’s home made chili won first prize at the fair.”
- Find and correct the error: “The label on the jar says Home Made, but it looks factory-sealed.”
Sentence Building
- Use “homemade” correctly in a sentence about a gift.
- Use “homemade” correctly in a sentence describing food at a party.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is “homemade” one word or two words?
One word. “Homemade” has functioned as a single compound adjective for centuries, and every major current dictionary lists it solid, with no space and no hyphen.
Is “home-made” with a hyphen ever correct?
It’s not standard today, but it isn’t a fabricated spelling either — some dictionaries list it as an accepted alternate form, and it was the more common printed spelling before the 20th century. Modern writing should default to “homemade.”
Why do so many people still write “home made” as two words?
Mostly because “home” and “made” are both familiar words on their own, so it’s easy to type them as separate words without noticing they’ve merged. The way the word is often pronounced — with the two “m” sounds blending together — adds to the confusion.
What’s the difference between homemade and handmade?
“Homemade” describes where something was made (a home, not a factory); “handmade” describes how it was made (by hand, not by machine). Many things are both, but not always.
What’s the difference between homemade and home-cooked?
“Home-cooked” only applies to food that was actually cooked at home. “Homemade” is broader, covering food, crafts, and anything else made domestically, cooked or not.
Is “housemade” the same as “homemade”?
They’re closely related but not identical. “Housemade” specifically describes something made on-site by a business, usually a restaurant, rather than in an actual home.
Can “homemade” describe things other than food or crafts?
Yes. It’s regularly used for anything made independently rather than produced commercially — a homemade website, a homemade tool, even a homemade device in news reporting.
Is “homemade” spelled the same in British and American English?
Yes. Both Cambridge Dictionary (UK) and Merriam-Webster (US) list “homemade” as the standard one-word spelling, though the hyphenated form has historically appeared a bit more often in British publishing.
What are the most common misspellings of “homemade”?
“Homade” is by far the most common, followed by variations like “hommade” and “homemde.” Most stem from how the word sounds when spoken quickly.
Is “homemade” appropriate for professional or business writing?
Yes, “homemade” itself is standard in any register. Just be accurate about what it implies — if a product is made in a commercial kitchen rather than an actual home, “housemade” or “made in-house” is the more precise choice.
How do you pronounce “homemade”?
It has two syllables, pronounced /ˌhoʊmˈmeɪd/ in American English and /ˌhəʊmˈmeɪd/ in British English, with the stress usually falling on the second syllable when the word stands alone.
The Bottom Line on Homemade vs. Home Made
“Homemade” is the one you want — one word, no hyphen, correct in every context from a recipe card to a business report. “Home made” is simply an outdated split of the same word, and “home-made” is a historical variant you’ll still see occasionally but don’t need to use. When in doubt, think of it the way you’d think of “bedroom” or “sunlight” — two ideas that merged into one word a long time ago. That’s homemade.
Practice Answer Key
- (c) homemade — standard one-word spelling before a noun.
- (a) homemade — same rule; neither “home made” nor “Home Made” is standard.
- (b) homemade — still one word as a predicate adjective after “is.”
- (b) “She wore a homemade scarf to the party.” — only the solid form is standard.
- (c) homemade — the form every major current dictionary lists as standard.
- Correct: “Grandpa’s homemade chili won first prize at the fair.”
- Correct: “The label on the jar says homemade, but it looks factory-sealed.” (also note: no reason to capitalize both words mid-sentence)
- Sample answer: “I gave my sister a homemade photo album for her birthday.”
- Sample answer: “There was a whole table of homemade desserts at the potluck.”
