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A flatmate is a person who lives with you in the same flat, sharing the rent and the kitchen, but not as your partner or your child. It is the usual British word. American English says roommate even when you do not share one bedroom, only an apartment. In Taiwan, students mostly meet roommate in US books and 室友 in Chinese, so flatmate can feel new. It is friendly, everyday speech. Housemate is close; that can be a whole house, not a flat. Though actually it does not tell you if you like the person — only that you share the place.
室友（英式；美式教材多寫 roommate。指合租的人，不是男女朋友）。
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
flatmatenoun/ˈflætmeɪt/
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A person with whom one shares a flat.
- Yet when both Regine and her flatmate are at home they tend to spend their time in their rooms, although Regine (and probably the flatmate too) tends to spend more time in the communal areas of the flat when the other is not at home.
- “So, it would probably [be] best if we could find another flatmate and go for a flat of five, and if old Chip does pull out, at least we can then drop down to a flat of four. What do you reckon?”
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A person with whom one shares any rental dwelling, not necessarily a flat.
- It had been weeks since all the flatmates had sat down together for a meal. Communication was breaking down. Written notes had begun to appear all over the house; please don′t touch this food, I bought it especially for Hermione[…].
- One night, one of the flatmates (the one who owned the house) was ranting and raving all night about her girlfriend.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。