love hotel

noun

"love-hotel" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“love hotel” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A short-stay hotel found in Japan and elsewhere, operated primarily for the purpose of allowing lovers privacy to have sexual intercourse.

Key facts for love hotel
PropertyValue
Headwordlove hotel
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “love hotel” sits in English frequency

love hotel falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

love hotel is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A short-stay hotel found in Japan and elsewhere, operated primarily for the purpose of allowing lovers privacy to have sexual intercourse.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for love hotel, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

Etymologically, the entry records: Calque of Japanese ラブホテル (rabu hoteru), from English love + hotel, probably after the rotating sign of the Hotel Love, an early love hotel in Osaka, Japan. The correct English form is love hotel, spelled L-O-V-E- -H-O-T-E-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    A short-stay hotel found in Japan and elsewhere, operated primarily for the purpose of allowing lovers privacy to have sexual intercourse.

Etymology

Calque of Japanese ラブホテル (rabu hoteru), from English love + hotel, probably after the rotating sign of the Hotel Love, an early love hotel in Osaka, Japan.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "love hotel"?
"love hotel" is spelled L-O-V-E- -H-O-T-E-L.
What does "love hotel" mean?
As a noun, "love hotel" means: A short-stay hotel found in Japan and elsewhere, operated primarily for the purpose of allowing lovers privacy to have sexual intercourse.
What is the origin of the word "love hotel"?
Calque of Japanese ラブホテル (rabu hoteru), from English love + hotel, probably after the rotating sign of the Hotel Love, an early love hotel in Osaka, Japan. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
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.

Using “love hotel”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is L-O-V-E- -H-O-T-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list