Hospital
adj, name, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A large medical facility, usually in a building with multiple floors, where seriously ill or injured patients are given extensive medical or surgical treatment. countable, uncountable
"Luckily an ambulance arrived quickly and he was rushed to hospital."
- 2 a health facility where patients receive treatment wordnet
- 3 A building founded for the long-term care of its residents, such as an almshouse. countable, uncountable
"The foundling hospital took in abandoned children and educated them."
- 4 a medical institution where sick or injured people are given medical or surgical care wordnet
- 5 A place of lodging. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"[…] they spide a goodly castle, plast / Foreby a riuer in a pleasaunt dale, / Which choosing for that euenings hospitale, / They thither marcht […]"
- 1 Hospitable. obsolete
"At last the Ocean, that hospital friend to the wretched, opened her capacious arms to receive him; and he instantly resolved to accept her kind invitation."
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"I'm at the hospital. I got struck by lightning."
Etymology
From Middle English hospital, hospitall, from Old French hospital (Modern French hôpital), from Late Latin hospitālis, hospitāle (“hospice, shelter, guesthouse”), from noun use of Latin hospitālis (“hospitable”), from hospes (“host, guest”). Doublet of hotel and hostel. Displaced native Middle English lechehous, from Old English lǣċehūs (literally “doctor house”).
Related phrases
More for "hospital"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.