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. 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

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 Word Forms

• hotelless 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

With new hotel construction slowing as building and materials costs climbed, acquisitions and partnerships had become more important.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Documents seen by the BBC show that several Chinese businesses have leased land and developed properties close to these sites, from undeveloped land to hotels overlooking the harbour and Palau's main airport.

Read more on BBC

“They can order three steaks if they want,” said Keith Lane, Celebrity’s senior vice president of hotel operations.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

On the other is a wide corridor that runs the length of the building with all the charm and utility of a hotel hallway.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Her father had toured the world, performing on cruise ships as well as giving piano recitals at country hotels, but like many others switched careers to help with the war effort after 1939.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

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