A guest is someone you invite into your home, or someone staying at a hotel, attending an event, or appearing on a show. When you have guests over for dinner, you're welcoming people into your space and usually trying to make them comfortable. Hotels call their customers guests because they're temporarily living in the hotel's rooms.

Being a good guest means respecting someone else's home or space. You follow their household rules, clean up after yourself, and thank them for their hospitality. Being a good host (the person who invites the guests) means making people feel welcome and comfortable, offering them food or drinks, and helping them enjoy their visit.

The word also applies beyond homes. A guest speaker visits a classroom to share expertise. A guest star appears on a TV show they don't normally work on. Late-night talk shows have celebrity guests who come on to promote their movies or books.

There's an old saying that guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days. This humorous observation suggests that even welcome visitors can wear out their welcome if they linger too long. The saying suggests that it's polite for guests to notice when it's time to go home and let their hosts return to normal life.