hostel

1 of 2

noun

hos·​tel ˈhä-stᵊl How to pronounce hostel (audio)
1
: inn
2
: an inexpensive lodging facility for usually young travelers that typically has dormitory-style sleeping arrangements and sometimes offers meals and planned activities

called also youth hostel

3
chiefly British : a supervised institutional residence or shelter (as for homeless people)

hostel

2 of 2

verb

hosteled or hostelled; hosteling or hostelling

intransitive verb

: to stay at hostels overnight in the course of traveling

Examples of hostel in a Sentence

Noun in the old days, a traveler could spend the night at one of the hostels placed along the coach route
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Mandy and Roy walked by the hostel again that night. Fiona McFarlane, The New Yorker, 4 Mar. 2024 Gopher tortoise burrows provide habitat not only for their shell-dwelling architects but also a host of other creatures that take advantage of the large network of tortoise tunnels — a kind of underground herpetological hostel. Ryan Ballogg, Miami Herald, 29 Feb. 2024 Months later, more than 200,000 Israelis unable to return home still live in hotels and hostels across the country. Taylor Luck, The Christian Science Monitor, 26 Feb. 2024 Sometimes Roy and Mandy walked down one particular street that had a backpacker hostel on it. Fiona McFarlane, The New Yorker, 4 Mar. 2024 The sweep came just two days after a building in Queens was found to have also been converted into a makeshift hostel, cramming at least 74 migrants into the first floor and cellar of a furniture store. Michael Dorgan, Fox News, 1 Mar. 2024 At this point, the Deputy Marshals also had a good idea of what hostel Armstrong was staying at in Santa Teresa and had help from the local Tourism Police surveilling that hostel. Megan Brown, CBS News, 30 Jan. 2024 Despite the messy split, the South Beach hostel remained a link between Granda and the Falwells. Douglas Hanks, Miami Herald, 1 Feb. 2024 But this time, there’s no camping on the beach or crashing in hostels. Katie Jackson, Robb Report, 18 Jan. 2024
Verb
That’s when the first upscale hostels appeared, determinedly different from those hosteling clichés. Mark Ellwood, Condé Nast Traveler, 12 Sep. 2018 Of course, hosteling originated as a way for young backpackers to sleep safely and comfortably without the expense of a hotel. Rick Steves, miamiherald, 3 May 2018

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hostel.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English, "lodging, accommodation, inn, dwelling place," borrowed from Anglo-French ostel, hostel, going back to Latin hospitāle "guest accommodation" (in plural hospitālia) — more at hospital

Note: Latin hospitāle as a noun is very sparsely attested in texts before the later Middle Ages, though the phonetic development to ostel and its semantic diversification show that it must have been well-established in Gallo-Romance at an early date.

Verb

derivative of hostel entry 1

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of hostel was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near hostel

Cite this Entry

“Hostel.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hostel. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

hostel

noun
hos·​tel
ˈhäs-tᵊl
1
: inn
2
: an inexpensive lodging for usually young travelers

called also youth hostel

Medical Definition

hostel

noun
hos·​tel ˈhäs-tᵊl How to pronounce hostel (audio)
chiefly British
: housing maintained by a public or private organization or institution
especially : a rest home or rehabilitation center for the chronically ill, the aged, or the physically disabled

More from Merriam-Webster on hostel

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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