hotel

[ hoh-tel ]

noun

1. 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.

   Synonyms: motel, guesthouse, hostel, hostelry

2. a word used in communications to represent the letter H.
3. Hotel, Military. 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

¹

/ həʊˈtɛl /

noun

1. communications a code word for the letter h

hotel

²

/ həʊˈtɛl /

noun

1. a commercially run establishment providing lodging and usually meals for guests, and often containing a public bar

Other Words From

• ho·tel·less adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of hotel¹

First recorded in 1670–80; from French hôtel, Old French hostel hostel

Word History and Origins

Origin of hotel¹

C17: from French hôtel, from Old French hostel; see hostel

Synonym Study

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.

Example Sentences

He owns a vast array of businesses, including coal mines, resort hotels and agricultural interests, many of them regulated by the state agencies that report to him.

From ProPublica

There are few hotels near the club, the former official said, so it was vital to have a space available for agents and equipment.

From Washington Post

The Housing Commission is set to vote this Friday on the proposal to buy Residence Inn hotels in Mission Valley and Kearny Mesa.

From Voice of San Diego

He said those who made reservations in other hotels will have to contact the hotels directly to cancel their reservations.

From Washington Blade

I didn’t want to get caught, so I suggested we go back to his hotel.

From Ozy

Flesh encircled him at the main pool of the Paradise Hotel and Residences at Boca.

From The Daily Beast

Scalise has called the talk, which he delivered in a hotel outside New Orleans, “a mistake I regret.”

From The Daily Beast

The added charge for access to hotel Wi-Fi is not only exploitative but increasingly irrelevant.

From The Daily Beast

“Personal hotspots can get speeds of up to 60 Mb/s down, whereas hotel Wi-Fi can be as slow as 1.5 Mb/s,” Sesar said.

From The Daily Beast

If someone wants to ensure a direct and secure connection, no entity, whether a hotel or otherwise, should be able to block it.

From The Daily Beast

“This house must have been the hotel of some distinguished family, Baron; it is nobly proportioned,” said David Arden.

From Project Gutenberg

There he gave orders for the car to be put into running condition for the following morning, and returned to the hotel.

From Project Gutenberg

Outside the hotel he came upon the two sisters sitting on a bench and drinking coffee.

From Project Gutenberg

I turned round, thrust my purse into the lap of the nearest, and with a light heart led the lady back to the hotel.

From Project Gutenberg

When he returned to the hotel he kissed his incongruous room-mate with the gentleness of a woman.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• hostel
• house
• inn
• lodging
• motel
• resort
• tavern