# hostel

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈhɑstəl/ · frequency rank #16,493

## Definitions
1. A commercial overnight lodging place, with dormitory accommodation and shared facilities, especially a youth hostel.
2. A temporary refuge for the homeless providing a bed and sometimes food.
3. A small, unendowed college in Oxford or Cambridge.
4. A public hotel.
5. A university or school dormitory, a place of accommodation for students.

## Etymology
From Middle English hostel, from Old French hostel, ostel, from Late Latin hospitale (“hospice”), from Classical Latin hospitalis (“hospitable”) itself from hospes (“host”) + -alis (“-al”). Doublet of hotel and hospital. Not in use from late 17th c. (in the usual sense from mid 16th c.) to 1808, when it was revived by Walter Scott in his poem Marmion (see the quotation).

## Easily confused with
- **hotel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hostel-vs-hotel)
- **hosts** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hostel-vs-hosts)
- **hotter** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hostel-vs-hotter)
- **hostile** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hostel-vs-hostile)
- **hostess** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hostel-vs-hostess)
- **host** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/host-vs-hostel)
- **hose** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hose-vs-hostel)
- **haste** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/haste-vs-hostel)
- **hoses** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hoses-vs-hostel)
- **Hosea** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hosea-vs-hostel)
- **hosted** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hosted-vs-hostel)
- **Hester** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hester-vs-hostel)
- **hasten** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hasten-vs-hostel)
- **holster** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holster-vs-hostel)
- **hoisted** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hoisted-vs-hostel)

## Common misspellings (9)
`hhostel`, `hosetl`, `hosstel`, `hostell`, `hostle`, `hosttel`, `hotsel`, `hsotel`, `ohstel`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/hostel