Lingo Kaiava

What does "hostia" mean?

Bloody hell — and also a hard hit.

Country
🇪🇸 Spain
Say it
OHS-tee-ah
Register
Crude — know it before you say it

How it's actually used

As an exclamation, ¡hostia! or ¡hostias! means whoa or bloody hell. As a noun it is a blow: *se dio una hostia con la moto*, he crashed hard. *La hostia* can also mean the best or the worst, depending on tone entirely.

Examples

Where it comes from

Literally the communion host. Catholic vocabulary turned into swearing is a deep Spanish tradition.

Before you say it

Blasphemous as well as crude, so it offends older and religious speakers more than *joder* does. Spain-only — elsewhere it just means the communion wafer.

Now actually use it out loud

Reading a definition isn't the same as saying it to someone. Lingo Kaiava is a voice tutor set to Spanish (Spain) Spanish — it uses hostia the way locals do, corrects you in the moment, and never "fixes" the way real people actually talk into textbook Spanish (Spain) Spanish.

Practice Spanish (Spain) Spanish free →

Free to start. No signup for your first conversation.

More slang like this

All Spanish (Spain) Spanish slang →

Help us improve