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hospitality

nouncommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˌhɒs.pɪˈtæl.ɪ.ti//
  • United States//ˌhɑ.spɪˈtæl.ə.ti//
  • United States/[ˌhɑ.spɪˈtæl.ə.ɾi]/
  • United States//ˌhɑ.spɪˈtæl.ɪ.ti//
  • United States/[ˌhɑ.spɪˈtæl.ɪ.ɾi]/

The act or service of welcoming, receiving, hosting, or entertaining guests; an appropriate attitude of openness, respect, and generosity toward guests.

noun

  1. 1

    The act or service of welcoming, receiving, hosting, or entertaining guests; an appropriate attitude of openness, respect, and generosity toward guests.

    Please thank our hosts for their hospitality during the week that we stayed.

    "Quarrels!" said Charles; "do not use so disagreeable a word. I am thinking of nothing but the thanks I owe Lord Avonleigh for his hospitality"—Lord Avonleigh bent to the very edge of the table—"and the favours I am about to ask."

    In Ancient Times, as Story tells, / The Saints would often leave their Cells, / And ſtrole about, but hide their Quality, / To try good Peoples Hoſpitality.

    Mr Venus, reminded of the duties of hospitality, produced some rum.

  2. 2

    The business of providing catering, lodging and entertainment service; the industry which includes the operation of hotels, restaurants, and similar enterprises.

    After graduating from college, she found a job in hospitality.

  3. 3

    The food, drink, and entertainment given to customers by a company or organization or provided to visitors by a private host.

Etymology

From Middle English hospitalite, from Old French hospitalité (modern French hospitalité), from Latin hospitālitās (“hospitality”), from hospitālis (“hospitable”), from hospes (“guest", "host”). Displaced native Old English cumlīþnes (literally “guest gentleness”).

Forms

plural
hospitalities
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).