What does guest mean?
A guest is someone who visits, stays, or takes part in something by invitation. The word most commonly describes a visitor received in someone's home, but it also refers to lodgers, customers, invited speakers, performers, and other temporary participants. Its meaning depends on context: at a hotel, a guest may be a paying customer; at a private home, the word emphasizes hospitality and welcome; at an event, it suggests participation rather than permanent membership. As a verb, guest can mean to entertain someone as a guest or to appear as an invited participant. The term is generally neutral and widely used in British and American English, although some speakers use more specific alternatives such as visitor, customer, or lodger when they wish to emphasize a person's role. Guest is also the base of familiar expressions involving hosting and hospitality, making it a useful word for describing social relationships as well as ordinary commercial encounters.
A person invited to visit, stay, or take part in an event or activity, especially as a visitor in another person's home or establishment.
"The hotel guests were given a map of the surrounding neighborhood."
In commercial settings, guest may refer to a customer or visitor rather than to someone staying overnight.
To entertain someone as a guest or to visit someone as a guest.
"The museum guested a celebrated historian for the opening of its new exhibition."
As a verb, guest is less common than the noun and often implies appearing or visiting in an invited capacity.
The standard plural is guests, used for more than one invited visitor, lodger, customer, or participant.
"All of the guests had arrived by the time the speeches began."
The word guest and its opposite, host, have different etymological histories, reminding us that opposites do not always share a common origin.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does guest come from?
Guest comes from Old English giest, which developed through Middle English into the modern English form guest. Its immediate ancestor was Proto-Germanic *gastiz, a term for a stranger or newcomer that is also reflected in cognates such as Dutch gast and German Gast. More distantly, the word is connected with an Indo-European root associated with a stranger or guest, which also underlies related forms in other languages.
Related word forms
How guest is actually used
The word is neutral in register and is used in both formal and informal contexts. In commercial settings, it may refer simply to a customer or visitor rather than to someone staying overnight. It is also widely used attributively in compounds such as guest room and guest speaker.
Easily confused with guest
A guest is a person who visits or stays somewhere by invitation, whereas a guess is an attempt to determine or estimate something uncertain.