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:
She said the total cost of renting a chalet this year had risen to just under £14,000 before additional charges.
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
There was an instant attraction between the two, and Longet relocated to Aspen, Colo., and ultimately moved into the pro skier’s ritzy Starwood chalet around 1975.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026
He wants to hang a sheet from the chalet to project films into a summer open air cinema, and open a bistro where they could offer cookery classes.
From BBC ● Apr. 7, 2026
He created a “memory chalet”—using as his background the layout of the chalet in Switzerland where he stayed on skiing holidays with his parents as a child.
From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith
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
Through his work at luxury chalets and hotels, he cooked for several celebrities and Premier League players, and one thing led to another.
From BBC ● Dec. 24, 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
We'd land on the Normandy beaches, drive south, lie about our ages, and work in vineyards or ski chalets.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
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.
