hote

Hote is a term that may be encountered in different contexts, but its standard meaning appears in the French word hôte, which has an accent.

In French, hôte (masculine) means a host or a host who receives guests, and can also be used for a guest in certain contexts. The plural form is hôtes. The word is used in hospitality and social settings, as in phrases describing someone who hosts an event or someone who is a guest of honor. The etymology traces hôte back to Old French hoste and ultimately to the Latin hospes, with the circumflex mark indicating a historical change in spelling.

Outside of French, the unaccented form hote is typically not treated as a standard word in English or other languages. In English-language texts, hôte is usually rendered as host, and hote may appear only as a loanword in specific names or, more commonly, as a misspelling or typographical simplification when accents are omitted. As a result, hote is not considered an independent English term with a defined meaning beyond retaining the French sense when used in multilingual contexts. Some rare instances may show hote as a surname or part of a geographic name, but such uses are uncommon and highly context-dependent.

In summary, hôte is the French noun for host or guest, with its accent-bearing form being the standard in French. The unaccented spelling hote is mostly seen outside French contexts and does not constitute a separate, widely recognized term in English. See also: host, hôte (linguistics).