hostage
hos·tage/ˈhɑs.tɪd͡ʒ/noun, verb
hostage is spelled H-O-S-T-A-G-E: 7 letters and 2 syllables (hos·tage). It appears 7.9 times per million words in written English, the 8,266th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, hostage means “A person given as a pledge or security for the performance of the conditions of a treaty or similar agreement, such as to ensure the status of a…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of hostage is hostages.
How many letters and syllables are in hostage?
| Letters | 7: H-O-S-T-A-G-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: hos·tage |
| In writing | 7.9 times per million words; the 8,266th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is hostage?
Hostage appears 7.9 times per million words in written English, the 8,266th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce hostage?
- UK /ˈhɒs.tɪd͡ʒ/
- US /ˈhɑs.tɪd͡ʒ/
Hostage has 2 syllables, split hos·tage in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-hostage.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of hostage
- hostages plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- hostaging participle, present
- hostaged participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does hostage mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A person given as a pledge or security for the performance of the conditions of a treaty or similar agreement, such as to ensure the status of a vassal.
- 2
A person seized in order to compel another party to act (or refrain from acting) in a certain way, because of the threat of harm to the hostage.
- 3
Something that constrains one's actions because it is at risk.
- 4
One who is compelled by something, especially something that poses a threat; one who is not free to choose their own course of action.
- 5
The condition of being held as security or to compel someone else to act or not act in a particular way.
Technically speaking, the Arnold infant was not "kidnapped" at all. Rather was she seized and held in hostage. The defendant "carried" no one away. It is true that for a brief space of time he "detained" the Arnold infant in the garage, but
verb
- 1
nonstandardTo give (someone or something) as a hostage to (someone or something else).
[…] in voting the prolongation of the military budget on a war estimate for a span of three years, contemplates, it is said, a speedy reoccupation of the six departments of France which were hostaged to the Germans at the termination of the
- 2
nonstandardTo hold (someone or something) hostage, especially in a way that constrains or controls the person or thing held, or in order to exchange for something else.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Hostage in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense person given as a pledge or security:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does hostage come from?
From Middle English hostage, ostage, from Old French hostage, ostage. This, in turn, is either from Old French hoste (“host”) + -age (in which case the sense development is from taking someone into "lodging" to taking them into "captivity", to applying the term to a captive), or is from Vulgar Latin obsidāticum (“condition of being held captive”), from Latin obses (“hostage, captive”), with the initial h- added under the influence of hoste or another word. Displaced native Old English ġīsl.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).