Basic Details
Word: Guest
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A person you invite to your home or to an event; also someone staying at a hotel.
Synonyms: visitor, caller, invitee
Antonyms: host
Sounds like: guessed (past tense of guess)
How to Spell Guest
Syllables: guest
Tricky part: The u is silent. It sits after the g to keep the g hard, as in guess and guitar. Students who spell by sound mix up the letters after it and write guset or guist.
Watch out for: guset, gueast, guist
Memory tip: Guess who is coming? Write guess, take off one s and add t: guest.
Idioms and Phrases
- be my guest: a friendly way of saying go ahead, you may Example: "When Tara asked to borrow my umbrella, I said, 'Be my guest.'"
Usage Examples
Example 1: We had twenty guests at my sister's birthday lunch.
Example 2: The hotel gave every guest a cup of masala chai on arrival.
Example 3: The chief guest at our annual day was a famous badminton player.
Fun Fact
The Sanskrit saying Atithi Devo Bhava means 'the guest is like God', and India's tourism ministry has used it in a campaign asking people to treat visitors well.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word guest as used in the sentence:
As a guest at the wedding, Uncle Ramesh was served before anyone else.
a) host
b) visitor
c) invitee
d) caller
Show answer
a) host. A host invites people in; a guest is the one invited.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one of these words is spelt correctly. Choose its meaning:
1. tounge 2. gaurd 3. guest 4. rythm
a) a strong, regular pattern of sounds
b) the soft part of the mouth used for tasting
c) a person who keeps watch over a place
d) a person invited to your home or an event
Show answer
d) a person invited to your home or an event. Guard, tongue and rhythm all hide a silent letter that has been moved or dropped here; guest keeps its silent u in place.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
When the guset arrived early, my mother quickly set out plates of samosas and asked my brother to fetch cold drinks from the neighbour's fridge.
a) plates
b) quickly
c) neighbour's
d) guset
Show answer
d) guset. Guest is spelt g, u, e, s, t, with the silent u straight after the g.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A guest at a hotel is someone who ____.
a) is staying there for a while
b) built the hotel
c) cooks in its kitchen
d) owns the building
Show answer
a) is staying there for a while
2. Which word sounds exactly like guest?
a) guess
b) guessed
c) quest
d) gust
Show answer
b) guessed
