A bachelor pad essentially means a house (pad) in which a bachelor or bachelors (single men) live.

In the United States it generally refers to small houses or apartments where unmarried men, often college students , live until obtaining larger or more luxurious houses or apartments, are married, or generally "move up" in standards of living and taste. Bachelor pads are stereotyped as being messy, with old food and dirty dishes and clothing being strewn about the floor, sinks, and other areas in close proximity to places where they are useful (examples being dirty clothes piled up near a washer and/or dryer, dirty dishes in a sink, or moldy food in a refrigerator) — often to the disgust of women related to or involved with the men living in "pads." Several men may share a pad and its expenses for financial reasons or friendship, which generally stereotypically results in worsened living conditions compared to one person's tenantship. Pads may also be the sites of wild parties.

In the United Kingdom the term bachelor pad usually refers to a flat where a single young man lives alone. Most students in the UK are unable to afford this luxury, and are forced to live with other students, hence the heightened social status attributed to this particular sense of the phrase.