hovel
Americannoun
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a small, very humble dwelling house; a wretched hut.
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any dirty, disorganized dwelling.
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an open shed, as for sheltering cattle or tools.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a ramshackle dwelling place
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an open shed for livestock, carts, etc
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the conical building enclosing a kiln
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hovel
1375–1425; late Middle English hovell, of uncertain origin
Explanation
A hovel is a small shed or dwelling, often messy, cramped, and crudely built, such as a shelter in a refugee camp — or possibly your apartment if you have too much stuff and not enough time to clean. The word hovel was used in the fifteenth century to describe a shed used for animals, and by the seventeenth century the word had taken on its current usage as a way to describe a crude human dwelling — though the connotation of a messiness associated with animals still remains. The word can be used literally to describe something that is a ramshackle shack, but you’ll also hear it used with wry humor to describe a person’s modest living quarters: “Well, I’m off to my hovel to get some sleep.”
Vocabulary lists containing hovel
100 SAT Words Beginning with "H"
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A Thousand Splendid Suns
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The Princess Bride
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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.
“This isn’t just a missing person case,” said Travis Harrison, a producer at NewsNation, which has pulled together a hovel of satellites and folding chairs in the prime real estate perpendicular to Guthrie’s address.
From Slate • Feb. 23, 2026
But all the characters racing up and down the stairs of his uber-New York walk-up hovel are a howl.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 5, 2025
Eventually they squeezed into a hovel before being discovered by a turncoat cabinet member.
From Salon • Apr. 8, 2024
“I used to leap out of the hovel semi-naked every night, shouting impenetrable Shakespearean mad talk,” he said.
From New York Times • Jan. 12, 2023
The hovel fell silent, then the canvas was pushed aside and the father stepped out, a musket in his hand.
From "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson
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.
