hotel

[hoh-tel]

noun

1. a commercial establishment offering lodging to travelers and sometimes to permanent residents, and often having restaurants, meeting rooms, stores, etc., that are available to the general public.

   Synonyms: motel, guesthouse, hostel, hostelry

2. a word used in communications to represent the letter H.

3. Military.,  Hotel, the NATO name for a class of nuclear-powered Soviet submarines armed with single-warhead ballistic missiles: in service with the Soviet Navy 1959–91.

Hotel

¹

/ həʊˈtɛl /

noun

1. communications a code word for the letter h

hotel

²

/ həʊˈtɛl /

noun

1. a commercially run establishment providing lodging and usually meals for guests, and often containing a public bar

Other Word Forms

• hotelless adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of hotel¹

First recorded in 1670–80; from French hôtel, Old French hostel hostel

Word History and Origins

Origin of hotel¹

C17: from French hôtel, from Old French hostel; see _hostel

Synonym Study

Hotel, house, inn, tavern refer to establishments for the lodging or entertainment of travelers and others. Hotel is the common word, suggesting a more or less commodious establishment with up-to-date appointments, although this is not necessarily true: the best hotel in the city; a cheap hotel near the docks. The word house is often used in the name of a particular hotel, the connotation being wealth and luxury: the Parker House; the Palmer House. Inn suggests a place of homelike comfort and old-time appearance or ways; it is used for quaint or archaic effect in the names of some public houses and hotels in the U.S.: the Pickwick Inn; the Wayside Inn. A tavern, like the English public house, is a house where liquor is sold for drinking on the premises; until recently it was archaic or dialectal in the U.S., but has been revived to substitute for saloon, which had unfavorable connotations: Taverns are required to close by two o'clock in the morning. The word has also been used in the sense of inn, especially in New England, ever since Colonial days: Wiggins Tavern.

Example Sentences

He added that the Annabelle doll, which has inspired several titles in “The Conjuring” film franchise, was not in the hotel room when Rivera died at age 54.

From Los Angeles Times

Fans of the legendary Brit rockers were lined up outside the W Hotel on Wednesday, home to the band’s debut North American Oasis Live ’25 pop-up shop full of exclusive merch.

From Los Angeles Times

A man who helped stoke a fire outside a hotel housing asylum seekers has been jailed for nine years.

From BBC

Protests have been staged outside The Bell Hotel, where he was being housed, since Kebatu's arrest and subsequent conviction on Thursday of five offences.

From BBC

Mohamed, who has been lodging at the hotel for five months, told the BBC: "He's gone and we hope he doesn't come back again."

From BBC

Related Words

• hostel 
• house 
• inn 
• lodging 
• motel 
• resort 
• tavern