chalet
Americannoun
plural
chalets-
a herdsman's hut in the Swiss Alps.
-
a kind of farmhouse, low and with wide eaves, common in Alpine regions.
-
any cottage, house, ski lodge, etc., built in this style.
noun
-
a type of wooden house of Swiss origin, typically low, with wide projecting eaves
-
a similar house used esp as a ski lodge, garden house, etc
Etymology
Origin of chalet
1810–20; < French, SwissF, equivalent to *chale shelter (cognate with Old Provençal cala cove 1 ) + -et -et
Explanation
A chalet is a style of house that's mainly found in the Swiss Alps. Most chalets are made of wood and have a very wide, heavy roof that slopes down. You might think of a chalet as a house you stay in during a ski vacation. Although chalets were originally the modest huts or cottages that Alpine herders lived in, over time the area became popular with skiers and vacationers, and chalet came to mean "mountainside holiday home." In Swiss-French, chalet means "herdsman's hut" or "Alpine cottage," from the Old French word chasel, "farmhouse."
Vocabulary lists containing chalet
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
While the facade of the building has changed from a cottage to a chalet in the past 200 years, its origins have a fascinating history.
From BBC • Apr. 7, 2026
He careens down the sheet of ice at 50 miles per hour, uses one of the final turns as a launchpad, flies out of the bob run and over a ski chalet to safety.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 8, 2026
As ever, the fight choreography is fantastic, especially when Eve arrives in a Stepford-esque ski chalet town where every husband, wife and child has been trained in combat.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 5, 2025
And the fourth day was that scene in the chalet with the Fireflies and Joel on the floor.
From Los Angeles Times • May 25, 2025
He created a “memory chalet”—using as his background the layout of the chalet in Switzerland where he stayed on skiing holidays with his parents as a child.
From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
