Kilo Lingo

el

common

/reˈen/

Line drawing of rehén
Coloured illustration of rehén
#2016 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

hostage

Word origin

From Arabic rahn ('pledge, security given for a debt'), reflecting the old idea of a person held as a guarantee. It entered Spanish during the medieval period of Arabic influence.

Origin
Arabic
Root
rahn

Grammar

Gendercommon
Pluralrehenes

Examples

.

The robbers took an employee as a hostage.

.

The police managed to free all the hostages.

.

The hostage was released safe and sound.

¿ ?

How many hostages were there inside the building?

Negociaron .

They negotiated for hours for the hostage's life.

Add to review queue

Track this word in your spaced-repetition queue and be tested on it at the right interval.

Go to my review queue

This word is part of lesson 41.