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

lot (lŏt)
Share:
n.
1. a lot or lots Informal
a. A large extent, amount, or number: is in a lot of trouble; has lots of friends.
b. Used adverbially to mean "to a great degree or extent" or "frequently": felt a lot better; ran lots faster; doesn't go out a whole lot; has seen her lots lately.
c. A number of associated people or things: placating an angry lot of tenants; kids who were a noisy lot.
d. Miscellaneous articles sold as one unit: a lot of stamps sold at an auction.
e. An individual of a particular kind or type: That dog is a contented lot.
2.
a. A piece of land having specific boundaries, especially one constituting a part of a city, town, or block.
b. A piece of land used for a given purpose: a parking lot.
c. The complete grounds of a film studio.
d. The outdoor area of a film studio.
3.
a. An object used in making a determination or choice at random: casting lots to see who will go first.
b. The use of objects in making a determination or choice at random: chosen by lot.
c. The determination or choice so made: The lot fell on the widow's only son.
d. One's fortune in life; one's fate: It was her lot to struggle for years in obscurity.
tr.v. lot·ted, lot·ting, lots
1. To apportion by lots; allot.
2. To divide (land) into lots.
3. To divide (goods) into lots for sale.

[Middle English, from Old English hlot.]

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.