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.
a word used in communications to represent the letter H.
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, 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.
First recorded in 1670–80; from French hôtel, Old French hostel hostel
How does hotel compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
When you're on vacation, one place you can stay for a nightly fee is a hotel. Most hotels provide accommodations for sleeping, with minibars, pools, and ice machines to keep you entertained. While in Australia and New Zealand a hotel can also be a bar or a pub, most English-speakers recognize this word as the equivalent of an inn. Simple hotels give you a bed to sleep in and a bathroom to use, while fancier hotels might have beautiful furnishings, separate sitting rooms, swimming pools, and cafes. In the 1760s, hotel was defined as "an inn of the better sort."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
If I had chosen the refund, StubHub was not offering to pay for our already paid, non-cancellable hotel room.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
Please don’t expect me to laugh at the goats from goat yoga rampaging through a hotel lobby or a high-speed golf cart chase.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Thai military chief Ukris Boontanondha greeted Ye Win Oo at a hotel in the capital, Bangkok, on Thursday morning, where they posed for the media alongside their respective delegations.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
Yet, the technology is still a long way from replacing what a skilled factory worker or hotel housekeeper can do, in the view of many specialists.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
I am sorry for the delay in responding to your letter, which had been forwarded from my London hotel and which I only received this morning, upon my return to dear old Swanburne.
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
The following evening, May 9, Eatherly and his cameraman dined at Bob’s Steak & Chop House in the Omni Hotel in downtown Nashville, at 250 Rep. John Lewis Way.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026
Hotel companies and the unions representing hotel workers oppose expanding the short-term rental market out of existing housing stock.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
She is the princess, and this is the castle she’ll be locked in, an indomitable beast of a citadel fittingly titled the Tower Hotel.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026
The outlines of this story are familiar, but Ms. Rogoyska sees it anew through the Hotel Lutetia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Eventually, they arrived at a place that neither Leonardo nor Lisa ever knew: the Hotel Tripoli-Italia.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
And the country sure does look splendid through the windows of brand new cars, upscale hotels and expensive ski resorts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
On the second-to-last day passengers were transferred to hotels, which Peach said were "really basic".
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Travel agents have access to cheaper bookings and perks: They can often provide discounts on hotels, cruises and tours, or access to perks like VIP packages and upgraded rooms that aren’t available to the public.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
Habaneros grumble that the money he spent turning old palaces into stunning hotels -- now empty -- was wasted.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
Whatever was new and exciting—elevators, gas lighting, swimming pools, golf courses—the White Mountain hotels were in the vanguard.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
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.
