System virtual machines The physical, “real-world” hardware running the VM is generally referred to as the ‘host’, and the virtual machine emulated on that machine is generally referred to as the ‘guest’. A host can emulate several guests, each of which can emulate different operating systems and hardware platforms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine#:~:text=System%20virtual%20machines,-Main%20article%3A%20System&text=The%20physical%2C%20%22real%2Dworld,operating%20systems%20and%20hardware%20platforms.