hostel
Americannoun
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hostels
plural
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Also called youth hostel. an inexpensive, supervised lodging place for young people on bicycle trips, hikes, etc.
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(formerly) a residence for the exclusive use of boarding Indigenous students, separate from but close to any of a series of day schools in northern Canada that were operated or funded by the federal government and were themselves open to students of any ethnicity.
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British. a student residence at a university or boarding school.
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an inn.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a building providing overnight accommodation, as for the homeless, etc
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See youth hostel
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a supervised lodging house for nurses, workers, etc
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archaic another word for hostelry
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hostel
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English (h)ostel, from Old French, from Late Latin hospitāle “guest room”; see hospital
Explanation
If you backpack around Europe and are traveling on a budget, you will probably want to stay in a hostel, an inexpensive lodging made typically for young travelers willing to sleep in dorms. The word hostel comes from the Latin hospitale meaning "inn, large house." Think of a hostel as an inn for students or young people. Often you can stay in one of these places for relatively little money because multiple beds are in one room and you share the bathroom with other guests. If you want to meet traveling students, you could try opening a youth hostel in your home town.
Vocabulary lists containing hostel
Some Tricky Homonyms
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To All the Boys I've Loved Before
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Born a Crime
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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:
A few weeks ago, I met an acquaintance for coffee at a Cuban café attached to a downtown hostel, where people with backpacks of varying dimensions passed steadily through the lobby.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
The second time we met Laura from Italy, it was at a Henro hostel where she and Karen made pizza with telephonic help from Laura’s mother in Italy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
Unwelcome back home in Stranraer, she ended up in a women's hostel in Glasgow.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026
Since then, I’ve corresponded with Nimblewill Nomad, the record holder and caretaker of a hostel at Flagg Mountain, the start of the Pinhoti Trail in Alabama.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
My family was kept in a military hostel near the hospital and had little access to news from the outside world, since the hostel had no Internet connection.
From "Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World" by Malala Yousafzai
It’s church bells; bunk beds in 15-euro hostels; and some grand cities but also lots of tiny towns that exist because people with backpacks keep arriving.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
Activities included occupying hostels, moving homeless families into empty houses, and battling with bailiffs.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
They were soon joined by young, adventurous backpackers, who filled hostels and traveled on the cheap.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
The first U.S. case of Andes virus actually occurred in January 2018, in a woman who had stayed in cabins and youth hostels in the Andes region of Argentina and Chile.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2026
The agreement established an independent body to review police actions, created a mechanism to fence in the hostels, and banned the display of “traditional weapons” at rallies.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Her parental father and his family retinue, large and small, married and unmarried, were hosteled on the 12th floor of the Waldorf.
From Epistles from Pap: Letters from the man known as 'The Will Rogers of Indiana' by Douglas (Douglas N.) Hay
Created last year, the place represents a subtrend in haute hosteling: an offsite annex of swish private rooms set up by an established traditional hostel — in this case the Violeta Hostel.
From New York Times ● Apr. 26, 2013
When “Should I Stay or Should I Go” blasted from the sound system, it summarized my ambivalence toward the hostel — and about the haute hosteling concept in general.
From New York Times ● Apr. 26, 2013
In fact he devoted a whole chapter of his guide to hostelling.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2018
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.
