use-icon

HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY

To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key.

Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window.

guide to the dictionary

use-icon

THE USAGE PANEL

The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.

The Panelists

open-icon

AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP

The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android.

scroll-icon

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG

The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more.

100-words-icon

See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series!

Find out more!

open-icon

INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?

Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com

Gib·son (gĭbsən)
Share:
n.
A dry martini garnished with a small pickled onion.

[From the name Gibson.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Gibson, Robert Known as "Bob." Born 1935.
Share:
American baseball player. A right-handed pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals (1959-1975), he is best known for his 1968 season, in which he set major-league records for single-season earned run average (1.12) and most strikeouts in a World Series (35), and won the first of his two Cy Young Awards (1968, 1970).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Gibson, Joshua Known as "Josh." 1911-1947.
Share:
American baseball player. During his 17-year career in the Negro Leagues (1930-1946), he is reported to have hit nearly 800 home runs, 84 of them in an estimated 200-game season.
(click for a larger image)
Josh Gibson

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Gibson, Althea 1927-2003.
Share:
American tennis player. The first African American to play at Wimbledon (1951), she won the US women's singles title and the singles and doubles titles at Wimbledon in 1957 and 1958.
(click for a larger image)
Althea Gibson
photographed in 1957 at Wimbledon

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Gibson, William Ford Born 1948.
Share:
American science fiction writer influential in the development of the cyberpunk genre with works such as "Johnny Mnemonic" (1981) and Neuromancer (1984).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.