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Added 3 October 2026

guest

/ɡɛst/ noun

In Latin: hostis, hospes Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about guest at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A recipient of hospitality, especially someone staying by invitation at the house of another.
The guests were let in by the butler.
A patron or customer in a hotel etc.
Guests must vacate their rooms by 10 o'clock on their day of departure.
An invited visitor or performer to an institution or to a broadcast.
special guest

verb

To appear as a guest, especially on a broadcast.
As a musician: to play as a guest, providing an instrument that a band/orchestra does not normally have in its line up (for instance, percussion in a string band).
To receive or entertain hospitably.

Origin

From Middle English gest, from Old Norse gestr, which replaced or was merged with Old English ġiest, both from Proto-Germanic *gastiz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰóstis (“stranger, guest, host, someone with whom one has reciprocal duties of hospitality”). Doublet of host, from Latin.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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