Hi Kam, Yes, hôte means both host and guest. You can tell from the context what the meaning is. For example: "Elle s'occupe toujours très bien de ses hôtes." Because she is looking after the hôtes, you can infer that she is the host and they are they guests. In a sentence like "En vacances, notre hôte était très prévenant," you're relying on the expression "en vacances" to tell you that it was the speaker who was on holiday, and they weren't hosting someone considerate.

These words are called contronyms or auto-antonyms, English has some too. For example: To dust (to remove dust, to add dust), To overlook (to miss or to look from above), A "model" can be either an exemplar or a copy, etc.

Yes Layla, there are words that carry multiple meanings in languages. However in this specific case the two meanings contradict each other, hence the confusion. Even with context it can appear somewhat tricky. And thank you Clara for that insight, if that's the case then I'll use l'hôte to refer to a host, and l'invité for guest. I'm not interested in less common/outdated aspects of the language Thank you everyone for replying 😊

The are just words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. In english grammar it is called a HOMOGRAPHS. An example of a Homographs in English is BASS which can mean a type of fish or a low voice. In French its called a HOMOGRAPHES (spelled with an e). If you search hard enough, I am sure that you can find many examples of Homographs/Homographes in all languages. (I hope this helps)

It doesn’t, we use both. Although, I would say people use it more for host in expressions like “prendre congé de ses hôtes”. Overall it is quite old-fashioned and formal.