motel

Blend of motor +‎ hotel, from the original Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo in California, USA, established in 1925 by Arthur Heineman (1878–1974).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /moʊˈtɛl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛl
• Hyphenation: mo‧tel

motel (plural motels)

1. (also attributive) A type of hotel or lodging establishment, often located near a major highway, which typically features a series of rooms whose entrances are immediately adjacent to a parking lot to facilitate convenient access to parked automobiles.
2. A low-cost short-stay hotel, often with hourly rates rather than daily rates, and notorious for permitting illicit sexual activities; love hotel.

• (hotel): See also Thesaurus:lodging place
• (love hotel): See also Thesaurus:love hotel

• graybar motel
• hot-sheet motel
• no-tell motel
• roach motel

• hotel
• inn
• motor court
• tourist court

motel (third-person singular simple present motels, present participle moteling or motelling, simple past and past participle moteled or motelled)

1. (informal, intransitive) To stay in a motel or motels.

• motel on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• metol

motel

1. stammerer

• IPA^(key): [ˈmotɛl]

motel m inan

1. motel

• “motel”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)
• “motel”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “motel”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

Borrowed from English motel. The gender and pronunciation were adapted to agree with hotel.

• IPA^(key): /moːˈtɛl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mo‧tel
• Rhymes: -ɛl

motel n (plural motels, diminutive motelletje n)

1. a motel (roadside hotel for motorists)

• Audio:

  (file)

motel m (plural motels)

1. motel

• “motel”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from English motel.

• IPA^(key): /moˈtɛl/
• Rhymes: -ɛl
• Hyphenation: mo‧tèl

motel m (invariable)

1. motel

   Synonyms: (rare) autostello, (rare) autoalbergo

Borrowed from English motel.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɔ.tɛl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔtɛl
• Syllabification: mo‧tel

motel m inan (diminutive motelik, related adjective motelowy)

1. motel

• motel in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• motel in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from English motel.

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -ɛl, (Brazil) -ɛw
• Hyphenation: mo‧tel

motel m (plural motéis)

1. love hotel (short-stay hotel for sex)
   • 1999 October 11, Gabriel o Pensador, Lulu Santos, “Astronauta” (1:08 from the start), in Nádegas a Declarar, performed by Lulu Santos, Sony Music:

     Eu vou pro mundo da lua / Que é feito um motel / Aonde os deuses e deusas / Se abraçam e beijam no céu

     I'm going to the world of the moon / Which is like a motel / Where the gods and goddesses / Hug and kiss in the sky

• moteleiro

• “motel”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
• “motel”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “motel”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025
• “motel”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Borrowed from French motel, from English motel.

motel n (plural moteluri)

1. motel

• IPA^(key): /mǒteːl/
• Hyphenation: mo‧tel

mòtēl m inan (Cyrillic spelling мо̀те̄л)

1. motel

• IPA^(key): /moˈtel/ [moˈt̪el]
• Rhymes: -el
• Syllabification: mo‧tel

motel m (plural moteles)

1. motel
2. (Mexico) brothel, whorehouse

• “motel”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

Borrowed from English motel or Spanish motel.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /moˈtel/ [moˈt̪ɛl]
• Rhymes: -el
• Syllabification: mo‧tel

motél (Baybayin spelling ᜋᜓᜆᜒᜎ᜔)

1. motel
2. love hotel; no-tell motel
   • 2008, J. Luis Camacho, Dagta:

     Muli ko bang pahahabain ang puntong ito para hindi tumuloy sa dulo ng kuwento? Sa Cubao rin kami napunta sa mamahaling motel.

     Will I extend this part again so we don't reach the end of the story? We ended up in Cubao, in a classy love hotel.

• otel

• “motel”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018

motel (definite accusative moteli, plural moteller)

1. motel