reservation

American  

[rez-er-vey-shuhn] / ˌrɛz ərˈveɪ ʃən /

noun

• reservations
  plural

1. the act of keeping back, withholding, or setting apart.

2. the act of making an exception or qualification.

3. an exception or qualification made expressly or tacitly.

   to accept something, but with inner reservations.

4. a tract of public land set apart for a special purpose, as for the use of an Indian tribe.

5. an arrangement to secure accommodations at a restaurant or hotel, on a boat or plane, etc.

6. the record kept or assurance given of such an arrangement.

   Sorry, the hotel has no reservation under that name.

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reservation British  

/ ˌrɛzəˈveɪʃən /

noun

1. the act or an instance of reserving

2. something reserved, esp hotel accommodation, a seat on an aeroplane, in a theatre, etc

3. (often plural) a stated or unstated qualification of opinion that prevents one's wholehearted acceptance of a proposal, claim, statement, etc

4. an area of land set aside, esp (in the US) for American Indian peoples

5. the strip of land between the two carriageways of a dual carriageway

6. the act or process of keeping back, esp for oneself; withholding

7. law a right or interest retained by the grantor in property granted, conveyed, leased, etc, to another

   a reservation of rent

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonreservation
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• reservations
  plural

Etymology

Origin of reservation

1350–1400; Middle English reservacioun < Middle French reservation, equivalent to reserv ( er ) to reserve + -ation -ation

Explanation

A reservation is something set aside, like a table at a restaurant or land for Native Americans. For fancy restaurants and hotels, you need a reservation: you call ahead and ask them to set aside a table or room for you. A reservation is also a piece of land set aside by the government for a group. In the U.S., there are Native American reservations. Sometimes a reservation is a doubt. If you have reservations about taking a trip to Australia, then you're not sure about it. You're not rushing to make reservations at a hotel there.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

reservation reservations

The system could automatically respond to a text message asking about when your flight arrives, or place a restaurant reservation based on a conversation.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

The service said the vehicle fire had spread into the central reservation, before progressing into nearby heathland.

From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026

On a recent Friday night, he was swiping through a tablet, showing four different interfaces of reservation apps.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Restaurants once lived and died by their reservation books, big manual records of tables and times typically managed by hosts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

JetBlue now has four hundred reservation agents, like Dolly, working at home in the Salt Lake City area, taking reservations —in between babysitting, exercising, writing novels, and cooking dinner.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman

In those cases, early reservations can be critical.

From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2026

Asked if he had any nerves or reservations about the prospect of climbing Africa's highest peak, standing at an impressive 5,895 metres, Albie-Junior simply said: "No."

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026

Others on recent earnings calls expressed deeper reservations.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 16, 2026

“I think I would have had more reservations had I not known him,” Riley said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026

Nobody knew why we had so few reservations.

From "The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora" by Pablo Cartaya

Related Words

• doubt
• restriction
• skepticism