hut
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
-
a small house or shelter, usually made of wood or metal
-
(on a sheep or cattle station) accommodation for the shearers, stockmen, etc
-
a shelter for mountaineers, skiers, etc
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of hut
1645–55; < French hutte < Frankish, cognate with Old Saxon hutta, Old High German hutt ( e ) a < West Germanic *hudjā; akin to hide 1
Explanation
If you've ever camped under a wooden lean-to, you know what a hut is — it's a simple, usually temporary shelter that doesn't do much more than keep the rain off your head. A hut can be built from many different materials, including wood, stone, snow, or even cardboard. What all huts have in common is a simple design and the intention that it provide a short-term shelter from the weather. Campers, hikers, and skiers often rest or sleep in huts. The word comes from the French hutte, "cottage," which has its root in the Old English word for "to hide," hydan. Hut was originally used in English to describe military dwellings.
Vocabulary lists containing hut
There's No Word Like Home
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
The Red Pencil
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
After returning to Ithaca disguised by Athena as an old beggar, Odysseus reveals himself to the son he hasn’t seen since infancy in the hut of the swineherd Eumaeus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Umar's body was later recovered, while the teenager's friends were supported by police officers at a nearby scout hut.
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026
Shortly after arriving in Pyongyang, the American evangelist visited a humble thatched hut on the outskirts of Pyongyang where Kim was said to have been born on April 15, 1912.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 2026
A group of young people sheltered under a thatched hut by the side of the road, absorbed in a game of poker.
From Barron's ● Mar. 14, 2026
It was blissfully warm inside the hut, and Anya sighed as her cold face thawed.
From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
Children linger in the narrow shade cast by the huts, some too tired to play, others trailing silently after their mothers.
From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026
None of the huts are allowed to have power and all offer basic shelter.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
The huts offer shelter in a landscape without trees or natural shade, and where the sun reflects harshly off the white salt crust.
From Barron's ● May 10, 2026
At the beginning of the war, I filmed brilliant young men tinkering in forest huts, using 3-D printers to build their first “birds of fire.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026
We pretend that we are on a small tropical island that has no hotels, just little huts that stand in the water and come with butlers.
From "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl" by Stacy McAnulty
The hunters were sent to look for a spring; and, one being found at no great distance, we all repaired to the spot, and hutted for the night.
From Satanstoe by Cooper, James Fenimore
Most of the troops we passed had tents, and some were hutted in hovels made of pine-boughs, thatched with the leaves or twigs of those trees.
From In the Russian Ranks A Soldier's Account of the Fighting in Poland by Morse, John
For a long time we were hutted in the Square.
From Adventures of a Despatch Rider by Watson, William Henry Lowe
Farewell, Romance!" the Lake-folk sighed; "We lift the weight of flatling years; The caverns of the mountain-side Hold him who scorns our hutted piers.
From Verses 1889-1896 by Kipling, Rudyard
One or two families of natives afterwards appeared hutted on the riverbank nearly opposite to our camp, and Piper opened a conversation with them across the river.
From Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 2 by Mitchell, Thomas
Do you remember when Prout and you were on their track for hutting and trespass, wasn't it?
From Stalky & Co. by Kipling, Rudyard
The troops were landed, and there being no barrack accommodation for them, some succeeded in hutting themselves most comfortably.
From History of Prince Edward Island by Campbell, Duncan
It was now the middle of February; the rains began to fall very heavy, and pointed the necessity of hutting the people; convicts were therefore appointed to assist the detachment in this work.
From A Source Book of Australian History by Swinburne, Gwendolen H.
Kinds of designs and experiments in hutting could be practised without expense in this simple way.
From The Art of Travel Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries by Galton, Francis, Sir
We were put on shore on the 8th February, and instantly commenced hutting ourselves by brigades.
From Twenty-Five Years in the Rifle Brigade by Surtees, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
