open house

American  

noun

• open houses
  plural

1. a party or reception during which anyone who wishes may visit to share in a celebration, meet a special guest, etc.

2. a time during which a school, institution, etc., is open to the public for exhibition or for some specific occasion.

3. a house hospitably open to all friends who may wish to visit it.

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idioms

1. keep open house, to be prepared to entertain visitors at any time.

   They keep open house for artists and writers.

open house British  

noun

1. Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): open day.   at-home.  an occasion on which an institution, such as a school, is open for inspection by the public

2. to be always ready to provide hospitality

3. a house available for inspection by prospective buyers

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• open houses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of open house

First recorded in 1520–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

open house

After an outcry, the company met with a number of local residents and hosted its own open house, Roger Wehner, vice president of economic development at Amazon Web Services, said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

They finally managed to put an offer on a house after attending an open house that was empty.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026

"It was an open house... by the end, there were probably 250 people there. It really felt special."

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026

No one was just driving around from open house to open house, and real estate agents weren’t about to ferry mere looky-loos around.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2026

The people in the yard still couldn’t believe Grandma was holding open house.

From "A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck