Guest

How to spell guest

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce guest

What does guest mean?

1. nounA person invited to visit or stay at someone's home, or to attend an event.
2. verbTo appear on a show or programme as an invited participant rather than a regular member.

Guest in a sentence

• noun

  Each guest at the wedding received a small box of chocolates.

• verb

  The singer agreed to guest on the late-night talk show.

• noun

  The hotel offers every guest a free breakfast in the morning.

• verb

  A famous chef will guest on this week's cooking programme.

Where does guest come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

Guest comes from the Old Norse gestr, meaning a stranger or a visitor, which the Vikings brought to England and which mingled with the related Old English giest. Both descend from a common Germanic ancestor, and the very same root surfaces in modern German Gast and Dutch gast. Ultimately it traces back to a Proto-Indo-European root that meant 'stranger' or 'host', the same source that gave Latin hostis, originally 'stranger' and later 'enemy', as well as hospes, 'host' or 'guest'. The early spelling often began with a y or gie sound, but the hard 'g' of the Norse form won out, leaving the slightly unexpected 'gu' opening that distinguishes guest in writing. That silent-looking 'u' after the 'g', and the fact that the word sounds exactly like 'guessed', are the two things that trip writers up.

How the word is built

• guest (whole word from Old Norse gestr: a stranger or visitor)