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hotel

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

5 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "hotel", 5-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 "hotel" 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 "hotel" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

hotel is aEnglishnoun. It means: A large town house or mansion; a grand private residence, especially in France. Pronounced /həʊˈtɛl/. It ranks #1,191 in English word frequency. Often confused with Howe and howl.

Key facts for hotel
PropertyValue
Headwordhotel
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/həʊˈtɛl/
Letters5
Frequency rank#1,191
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of hotel in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for hotel is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /həʊˈtɛl/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,191 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for hotel, with forms such as "hhotel", "hoetl", and "hotell". 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, "Howe", "howl", "hove", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Italic *hostipotjālis Latin hospitālis Old French ostel Middle French hostel French hôtelbor. English hotel Borrowed from French hôtel, from Middle French hostel, from Old French ostel, from Late Latin hospitālis (“hospice, shelter, gue… 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 hotel, spelled H-O-T-E-L, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A large town house or mansion; a grand private residence, especially in France.
  2. 2
    An establishment that provides accommodation and other services for paying guests; normally larger than a guesthouse, and often one of a chain.
  3. 3
    A public house or pub.
  4. 4
    A restaurant; any dining establishment.
  5. 5
    Alternative letter-case form of Hotel from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet.
  6. 6
    The larger red property in the game of Monopoly, in contradistinction to houses.
  7. 7
    The guest accommodation and dining section of a cruise ship.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *hostipotjālis Latin hospitālis Old French ostel Middle French hostel French hôtelbor. English hotel Borrowed from French hôtel, from Middle French hostel, from Old French ostel, from Late Latin hospitālis (“hospice, shelter, guesthouse”), from Latin hospitālis (“hospitable”). Doublet of hostel and hospital.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: hhotel,hoetl,hotell,hotle,hottel,htoel,ohtel

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for hotel

Misspelling Variants of "hotel"

hhotel6hoetl5hotell6hotle5hottel6htoel5ohtel5
Misspelling Variants of "hotel"

Frequency rank: #1,191 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "hotel"?
"hotel" is spelled H-O-T-E-L. The IPA pronunciation is /həʊˈtɛl/.
What does "hotel" mean?
As a noun, "hotel" means: A large town house or mansion; a grand private residence, especially in France.
What words are commonly confused with "hotel"?
"hotel" is commonly confused with "Howe", "howl", "hove". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "hotel"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "hotel" is /həʊˈtɛl/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "hotel"?
Etymology tree Proto-Italic *hostipotjālis Latin hospitālis Old French ostel Middle French hostel French hôtelbor. English hotel Borrowed from French hôtel, from Middle French hostel, from Old French ostel, from Late Latin hospitālis (“hospice, sh... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter H in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.