host
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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4 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "host", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "host" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "host" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
host is aEnglishnoun. It means: One which receives or entertains a guest, socially, commercially, or officially. Pronounced /həʊst/. It ranks #1,758 in English word frequency. Often confused with how and hot.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | host |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /həʊst/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,758 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for host is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /həʊst/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,758 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 4 documented wrong-spelling variants for host, with forms such as "hhost", "hosst", and "hostt". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "how", "hot", "hut", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʰóstis Proto-Indo-European *pótis Proto-Indo-European *gʰóstipotis Proto-Italic *hostipotis Latin hospes Old French ostebor. Middle English hoste English host From Middle English hoste, from Old French oste (French: hôte… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is host, spelled H-O-S-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1One which receives or entertains a guest, socially, commercially, or officially.
- 2One that provides a facility for an event.
- 3A person or organization responsible for running an event.
- 4A moderator or master of ceremonies for a performance.
- 5The primary member of a system, typically the member who fronts most often.
- 6Any computer attached to a network.
- 7A cell or organism which harbors another organism or biological entity, usually a parasite.
- 8An organism bearing certain genetic material, with respect to its cells.
- 9A paid male companion offering conversation and in some cases sex, as in certain types of bar in Japan.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʰóstis Proto-Indo-European *pótis Proto-Indo-European *gʰóstipotis Proto-Italic *hostipotis Latin hospes Old French ostebor. Middle English hoste English host From Middle English hoste, from Old French oste (French: hôte), from Latin hospitem, accusative of hospes (“a host, also a sojourner, visitor, guest; hence, a foreigner, a stranger”), from *hostipotis, an old compound of hostis and the root of potis, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰóstipotis (“master of guests”), from *gʰóstis (“stranger, guest, enemy”) and *pótis (“owner, master, host, husband”). Used in English since 13th century.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hhost,hosst,hostt,ohst
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for host
Misspelling Variants of "host"
Frequency rank: #1,758 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter H in our English index: