open house

noun

1

: ready and usually informal hospitality or entertainment for all comers

2

: a house or apartment open for inspection especially by prospective buyers or tenants

Examples of open house in a Sentence

Westside High School will host an open house from 3 to 7 p.m. today, and all parents are invited to attend.

colleges holding open houses for prospective students

We held an open house last week in the hopes that someone would offer to buy our house.

They kept open house, and in the evenings neighbors would stop by to talk or play music.

They always kept an open house for visitors.

Recent Examples on the Web

Other residents voiced concerns at the open house about the bridge’s structural integrity. — Los Angeles Times, 16 Oct. 2026

RSVPs for the open house are required and can be made online. — Camila Pedrosa, Sacbee.com, 16 Oct. 2026

But about six months after they got married, Sarah was browsing StreetEasy and spotted an open house at noon for an apartment downstairs from Len’s. — Anne Kadet, Curbed, 14 Oct. 2026

There will be live owl demonstrations, a garden tour and open house, arts and crafts, drop-in educational activities like owl pellet dissection and a bird scavenger hunt, and plenty of other hands-on and family-friendly fun, Audubon said. — Jonathan Shikes, Denver Post, 1 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for open house

• boardinghouse
• charterhouse
• clearinghouse
• coffeehouse
• customhouse
• firehouse
• meetinghouse
• motherhouse
• packinghouse
• pilothouse
• powerhouse
• slaughterhouse

Kids Definition

open house

noun

: usually informal hospitality or entertainment for all comers