English Reference

Word

guesthouse

Phoneticsguest·house

US/ˈɡɛstˌhaʊs/

UK/ɡˈɛsthaʊs/

Definitions

01a small hotel or B&B

B1

n. a private house where you can pay to stay in a room and often have breakfast.

n. a commercial lodging establishment, often a converted private residence, providing rooms and meals to paying guests.

“We stayed at a lovely guesthouse near the beach instead of a big hotel.”

“The family-run guesthouse offered a more intimate experience than the local resorts, with the owners providing personalised recommendations for hiking trails.”

Synonyms

bed and breakfastinnboarding house

Antonyms

02a separate building for visitors

B2

n. a small, separate building on someone's property used for visitors to sleep in.

n. a secondary building on a residential estate designed to accommodate non-paying personal visitors.

“When my cousins visit, they usually sleep in the guesthouse in the garden.”

“The estate includes a primary residence and a detached guesthouse, which the current owners have converted into a private studio for visiting artists.”

Synonyms

Etymology

From Middle English gest hous, gistenehus, gystehuse, gesthus, partly from Old English gæsthūs, ġesthūs (“guesthouse, hostel; guest-chamber”), from Proto-West Germanic gastihūs; and partly from Old Norse gesthús (“guesthouse; guest-chamber”); both from Proto-Germanic gastihūsą, corresponding to guest + house.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Word family

This entry

Level
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Occasional
Updated

Scan code

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English Reference