- a commercially run establishment providing lodging and usually meals for guests, and often containing a public bar
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
ho•tel
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- a building that offers a temporary place to stay for travelers.
ho•tel
(hō tel′),USA pronunciation n.
ho•tel′less, adj.
- 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.
- Military(cap.) the NATO name for a class of nuclear-powered Soviet ballistic missile submarine armed with up to six single-warhead missiles.
- Telecommunicationsa word used in communications to represent the letter H.
- French hôtel, Old French hostel hostel
- 1635–45
- 1. hostelry, hostel, guesthouse, motel. 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, esp. in New England, ever since Colonial days:Wiggins Tavern.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
hotel /həʊˈtɛl/ n
'hotel room' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
en suite
- book
- cancellation
- checkout
- double-book
- expense account
- hand-wash
- pension
- unchristian
- single
- smoke-filled room