Definition of HOSTEL

hostel

Plural: hostels

Noun

  • a hotel providing overnight lodging for travelers
  • inexpensive supervised lodging (especially for youths on bicycling trips)
  • A commercial overnight lodging place, with dormitory accommodation and shared facilities, especially a youth hostel.
  • A temporary refuge for the homeless providing a bed and sometimes food.
  • A small, unendowed college in Oxford or Cambridge.
  • A university or school dormitory, a place of accommodation for students.

Verb

Verb Forms: hostelled, hostelling, hostels

  • To stay in a hostel or similar inexpensive lodging.
  • To stay in a hostel during one's travels.
  • To lodge (a person) in a hostel.

Examples

  • A rundown hostel
  • My strategy was to hostel my tiles, saving them for a future, higher-scoring play.

Origin / 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. Obsolete from the 16th to 18th centuries, until it was revived by Walter Scott.

Synonyms

auberge, hostelry, inn, lodge, student lodging, youth hostel

Scrabble Score: 9

hostel: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
hostel: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
hostel: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 9

hostel: valid Words With Friends Word