Meaning & use
beach hut
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Meaning
nouncountable
A small wooden shelter on or beside a beach where people keep chairs and towels, change clothes and sit out of the wind.
Grammar: Takes a plural: two beach huts side by side.
Patterns
- a beach hut at somewhere
- rent a beach hut
We hired a beach hut for the week so the children had somewhere dry to change.
Rows of brightly painted beach huts line the promenade at the resort.
She keeps a stove and a kettle in the family beach hut.
Word forms
| plural | beach huts |
|---|
Common combinations
- rent a beach hut
- They rent a beach hut every August.
- painted beach huts
- The painted beach huts made the seafront look cheerful.
- own a beach hut
- Owning a beach hut on the south coast can cost a fortune.
- beach hut owner
- Each beach hut owner pays a yearly fee to the council.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cabana
- Cabana is the usual American word and often suggests a poolside or resort shelter, while beach hut sounds more British and modest.
- bathing hut
- Bathing hut is older and suggests a place just for changing, whereas a beach hut is also used for sitting and making tea.
- shed
- Shed is a general word for a storage building and says nothing about the seaside.
Word family
- beach noun
- sandy or pebbly shore beside the sea
- hut noun
- small simple building
- beachfront noun
- land or buildings directly facing the beach
- beachwear noun
- clothes for wearing at the beach
Commonly confused: beach hut or boathouse?
beach hut vs boathouse
A boathouse shelters boats beside water, while a beach hut shelters people and their belongings on a beach.
Practice
Which sentence uses beach hut correctly?
Choose one answer.
A beach hut is a small shelter by the sea, so changing clothes there makes sense. The other options describe things far too large or unrelated for a small hut.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “beach hut”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.