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A barracks housing conscripts of Norrbottens regemente in Boden, Sweden.

Barracks are a type of military housing. They are typically very plain and all of the buildings in the housing unit are often uniform structures. The term can also be used to describe the building(s) in which convicts are housed. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that the term barrack is derived from the French baraque or Italian baracca and originally meant a temporary hut or cabin. It may also be derived from the Valencian word barraca. It was not until 1690s that the word was used to describe a place of lodgement or residence for soldiers.

There are a number of remains of Roman army barracks in frontier forts such as Houseteads and Vindolanda. From these and from contemporary Roman sources we can see that the basics of life in a military camp have remained constant for thousands of years.

Before 1780, these types of dwellings were not widely known in Britain.

Barracks blockhouses were used to house troops in forts in Upper Canada. The Stone Frigate, completed in 1820, served as a barracks briefly in 1837-38, and was refitted as a dormitory and classrooms to house the Royal Military College of Canada by 1876. The Stone frigate is a large stone building originally designed to hold gear and rigging from British warships dismantled to comply with the Rush-Bagot Agreement.

In many militaries, NCOs and enlisted personnel will frequently be housed in barracks for service or training. Many lower level enlisted are concentrated, while higher ranking NCOs and officers typically receive more space. "Garrison town" is a common expression for any town that has a military barracks, i.e., a permanent military presence.

While in basic training and sometimes follow-on training, military members live in barracks. The U.S. Marine Corps have gender-separate basic training units. This differs from the U.S. Army, United States Coast Guard, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy, where male and female recruits train and share the barracks during the basic, but are separated during personal time and lights out. However, all the branches of service integrate male and female members following boot camp and first assignment.

The modern-day trend in the U.S. military is to house only the lowest-ranking bachelor enlisted in barracks unless required for reasons of military necessity. Unmarried NCOs and the highest ranking junior enlisted are generally expected to find off-base accommodations. Those that do reside in barracks are now generally housed in individual rooms conforming to modern U.S. Department of Defense guidelines. The Marine Corps is often the exception to this practice.

Unlike the other services, barracks in the U.S. Air Force are officially referred to as "dormitories."

During World War II, many U.S. barracks were made of inexpensive, sturdy and easy to assemble Quonset huts that resembled Native American long house (being semi-circular but made out of metal).

• Royal Engineers Museum Military Works (Barrack construction)

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