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.
a word used in communications to represent the letter H.
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, 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.
First recorded in 1670–80; from French hôtel, Old French hostel hostel
How does hotel compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
When you're on vacation, one place you can stay for a nightly fee is a hotel. Most hotels provide accommodations for sleeping, with minibars, pools, and ice machines to keep you entertained. While in Australia and New Zealand a hotel can also be a bar or a pub, most English-speakers recognize this word as the equivalent of an inn. Simple hotels give you a bed to sleep in and a bathroom to use, while fancier hotels might have beautiful furnishings, separate sitting rooms, swimming pools, and cafes. In the 1760s, hotel was defined as "an inn of the better sort."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Police said the group were arrested at South Africa's biggest airport, OR Tambo, and a hotel in Bruma, east of Johannesburg by a multidisciplinary team that involved Interpol.
From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2026
In China and other East Asian countries especially, robots are an increasingly common sight, shuttling food to customers in chain restaurants and taking on other jobs from cleaning to greeting hotel guests.
From Barron's ● Nov. 8, 2026
The buffets were wonderful—much better than any hotel restaurant I ever stayed in.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
With an eye to potential expansion later, hotel management has also bought up one of the three immediately neighboring properties.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026
He climbs the steps of the Cavendish hotel, where he has been living, and takes a seat on the porch beside his landlord, Joseph Adams.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
Later it became the Hollywood Sunset Hotel, then the Golden Crest retirement home.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2026
The suspected head of one compound installed at the Live Hotel in the city was a Chinese national who was among those extradited to Beijing.
From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2026
Its Saturday night games at Philadelphia’s Broadwood Hotel drew crowds who stayed to dance afterward.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
Sinèad Jackson was set to marry her partner of 19 years Stephen on 10 October at the Village Hotel in Hyde, Greater Manchester when her dad, Leslie Healy, was admitted to Tameside General Hospital.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
Dasch picked up the phone and asked for the Hotel Chesterfield.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
You can, after all, take phenomenal vacations without staying in five-star hotels.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 9, 2026
They were so numerous they forced him to change hotels.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
People often see it as just the souks, beautiful hotels and a very photogenic city.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
Bass gave much of the credit to Inside Safe, her initiative to move homeless people into hotels and motels, and eventually permanent housing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2026
City clutter had fallen behind and now there was country clutter, junkyards, a trailer park, billboards advertising dog food and faraway hotels.
From "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
