hostilvshotelWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hostil is a adjective, hotel is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hostil” is an adjective and “hotel” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,076
“hostil” frequency rank
#1,241
“hotel” frequency rank
13317
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hostil hotel
Definition ameaçador estabelecimento comercial do setor de serviços que atende visitantes alocando quartos pelo serviço de diárias, geralmente provendo, além da acomodação noturna, serviços de alimentos e bebidas

Where the eye mixes hostil and hotel

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
hostil
5 ch
hotel

Visual trap between hostil and hotel

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hostil is /ɔʃ.ˈtiɫ/ while hotel is /oˈtɛw/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13317, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hostil is recorded at frequency rank #12,076, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɔʃ.ˈtiɫ/. hotel is at rank #1,241, tagged as anoun, pronounced /oˈtɛw/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 13317, this pair ranks #59,069 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hostil vs hotel

Shared letters: hlot. Private to "hostil": is. Private to "hotel": e.

"hostil" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "hotel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hostilhhostil · hositl · hosstil · hostill · hostli · hosttil · hotsil · hsotil
  • hotelhhotel · hoetl · hotell · hotle · hottel · htoel · ohtel

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hostil" for "hotel" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hostil" is an adjective and "hotel" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hostil" or "hotel"?
"hotel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,241 in our Portuguese list, against #12,076 for "hostil". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hostil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hotel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #59,069 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hostil" and "hotel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hóstia vs hostil". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #59,069 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list