open house

American  

noun

open houses plural

1. a party or reception during which anyone who wishes may visit to share in a celebration, meet a special guest, etc.

2. a time during which a school, institution, etc., is open to the public for exhibition or for some specific occasion.

3. a house hospitably open to all friends who may wish to visit it.

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idioms

1. keep open house, to be prepared to entertain visitors at any time.

   They keep open house for artists and writers.

open house British  

noun

1. Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): open day.   at-home.  an occasion on which an institution, such as a school, is open for inspection by the public

2. to be always ready to provide hospitality

3. a house available for inspection by prospective buyers

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• open houses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of open house

First recorded in 1520–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

open house

Carlson was outside a packed open house for a three-bedroom, two-bath condo on Buchanan Street in Pacific Heights.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 15, 2026

Sometimes people spend the night — it’s an open house.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026

“You’d see the enthusiastic eighth-grader dragging the skeptical parents” to open house events years ago, said Tom Hickey, the superintendent of South Shore Regional Vocational Technical High School.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 28, 2025

The open house ends on 7 December and is sold out with a waiting list of 500 people.

From BBC ● Dec. 5, 2025

Then all at once, the open house was in full swing.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu