chalet
Americannoun
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a herdsman's hut in the Swiss Alps.
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a kind of farmhouse, low and with wide eaves, common in Alpine regions.
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any cottage, house, ski lodge, etc., built in this style.
noun
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a type of wooden house of Swiss origin, typically low, with wide projecting eaves
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a similar house used esp as a ski lodge, garden house, etc
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of chalet
1810–20; < French, SwissF, equivalent to *chale shelter (cognate with Old Provençal cala cove 1 ) + -et -et
Explanation
A chalet is a style of house that's mainly found in the Swiss Alps. Most chalets are made of wood and have a very wide, heavy roof that slopes down. You might think of a chalet as a house you stay in during a ski vacation. Although chalets were originally the modest huts or cottages that Alpine herders lived in, over time the area became popular with skiers and vacationers, and chalet came to mean "mountainside holiday home." In Swiss-French, chalet means "herdsman's hut" or "Alpine cottage," from the Old French word chasel, "farmhouse."
Vocabulary lists containing chalet
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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.
Park Chalet in San Francisco offers Atlantic salmon and a $16 flatiron steak that diners say is “prepared exactly like the adult portion.”
From Salon • Apr. 25, 2026
Hicks had moved his skaters from Paramount to the Ice Capades Chalet, a buff-colored concrete-block building in Santa Monica, five blocks from the Pacific Ocean.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 1, 2026
The spot in question is Espresso Chalet, a roadside gem on Washington’s Highway 2, which stretches across the Cascades between Everett and Spokane.
From Seattle Times • May 6, 2024
Nadine Paulo of Travel Edge buys out the whole Sheldon Chalet in remote Alaska for clients willing to pay $75,000 for up to four people for a three-night minimum stay.
From Washington Post • Dec. 21, 2022
I meet her for coffee, during my afternoon break, not at the Swiss Chalet.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
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.
