hut
Americannoun
-
huts
plural
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
-
a small house or shelter, usually made of wood or metal
-
(on a sheep or cattle station) accommodation for the shearers, stockmen, etc
-
a shelter for mountaineers, skiers, etc
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of hut
1645–55; < French hutte < Frankish, cognate with Old Saxon hutta, Old High German hutt ( e ) a < West Germanic *hudjā; akin to hide 1
Explanation
If you've ever camped under a wooden lean-to, you know what a hut is — it's a simple, usually temporary shelter that doesn't do much more than keep the rain off your head. A hut can be built from many different materials, including wood, stone, snow, or even cardboard. What all huts have in common is a simple design and the intention that it provide a short-term shelter from the weather. Campers, hikers, and skiers often rest or sleep in huts. The word comes from the French hutte, "cottage," which has its root in the Old English word for "to hide," hydan. Hut was originally used in English to describe military dwellings.
Vocabulary lists containing hut
There's No Word Like Home
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
The Red Pencil
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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:
It refers to the mythical Slavic crone, Baba Yaga, who either gives heroes a boon or lures wayward children to a forest hut that moves around on bird legs.
From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2026
The faint cry of protesters could be heard in the distance as Charles visited Umana Yana, a thatched hut and traditional Indigenous gathering place.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026
His video, which rapidly surged to more than 750,000 views, shows his vehicle approaching an unfinished wooden guard hut with stud walls still visible on the outside.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Craig Bowe, who was renting a beach hut for his daughter's birthday at the time, managed to help Musa on to a lifeboat, but said he was "not in a good way".
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
The hut was just a minute up the beach, small and coconut-thatched.
From "The Boy Who Met a Whale" by Nizrana Farook
For this humble fishing village in Yemen, a tumbledown grouping of barely-there huts nestled between the water and an imposing mountain range, stands sentinel over one of the world’s most vital waterways.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
Wooden container huts meant for thousands of athletes have become the subject of heated criticism ahead of the opening of Japan's Asian Games on Saturday.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
Indian authorities have built replicas of the huts to get their athletes used to living in them.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
The huts seat up to six and can be reserved for tastings or a meal of wood-fired pizzas from the winery’s restaurant, which opened in 2020.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
The air was cooler in the shadow of the black-roofed huts, a pleasant breeze rolling off Lake Michigan.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
The one with which Washington made his headquarters was hutted on the heights about Morristown, N.J.
From Philip Winwood A Sketch of the Domestic History of an American Captain in the War of Independence; Embracing Events that Occurred between and during the Years 1763 and 1786, in New York and London: written by His Enemy in War, Herbert Russell, Lieutenant in the Loyalist Forces. by Robert Neilson Stephens
The hunters were sent to look for a spring; and, one being found at no great distance, we all repaired to the spot, and hutted for the night.
From Satanstoe by James Fenimore Cooper
In fact, we were no sooner hutted than we were on the march, if there were but the least excuse in the way of a bit of open weather, or a Tory raid.
From Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker by S. Weir (Silas Weir) Mitchell
During the winter which followed the campaign of 1779, Washington, with his army hutted on the heights of Morristown, was beset by pressing and formidable difficulties.
From Life and Times of Washington, Volume 2 Revised, Enlarged, and Enriched by John Frederick Schroeder
Most of the troops we passed had tents, and some were hutted in hovels made of pine-boughs, thatched with the leaves or twigs of those trees.
From In the Russian Ranks A Soldier's Account of the Fighting in Poland by John Morse
Do you remember when Prout and you were on their track for hutting and trespass, wasn't it?
From Stalky & Co. by Rudyard Kipling
We were put on shore on the 8th February, and instantly commenced hutting ourselves by brigades.
From Twenty-Five Years in the Rifle Brigade by William Surtees
The troops were landed, and there being no barrack accommodation for them, some succeeded in hutting themselves most comfortably.
From History of Prince Edward Island by Duncan Campbell
He frequently accompanied the General, as at Valley Forge, in his visits to the encampment on the mountain, where the emaciated tattered wretches were hutting with all possible speed against the severity of another winter.
From The Conqueror by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
Kinds of designs and experiments in hutting could be practised without expense in this simple way.
From The Art of Travel Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries by Sir Francis Galton
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
