chalet
Americannoun
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chalets
plural
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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.
See Examples For:
Alex said she paid £6,780 including VAT and electricity to rent a chalet for the six-week market last year.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
Italian actor Sophia Loren had a chalet on the Burgenstock -- now the site of its Persian restaurant -- while queen Ingrid of Denmark was among the hotel's visitors.
From Barron's ● Jun. 16, 2026
Planning permission has been recently granted for a farm shop and deli to make the chalet its home, with the owners hoping to revitalise one of the Isle of Man's beloved beauty spots.
From BBC ● Apr. 7, 2026
The games will be set in “a luxury chalet in Park City, Utah, with contestants asked to complete a series of “mental and physical challenges over four days,” according to Variety.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2026
For her seventh birthday, a tiny wooden chalet stands in the center of the kitchen table where the sugar bowl ought to be.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Visitors were greeted by security forces in flak jackets, some in military camouflage and others toting submachine guns, scattered amid a landscape of green pastures, wooden chalets and snowy peaks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
Switzerland may be known for its snow-covered mountains, cosy chalets and world-class skiing, but the sun-scorched country is looking very different for Euro 2025.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2025
Pontins Brean Sands has 900 chalets, out of a total of 2,000 self-catering chalets available to rent in Brean.
From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2024
Beside the springs are cozy cedar chalets to make the hot spring visits convenient.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 23, 2024
The work camps and chalets, the schools and study centers, were never built.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
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.
