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

scram·ble (skrămbəl)
Share:
v. scram·bled, scram·bling, scram·bles
v. intr.
1.
a. To move or climb hurriedly, especially on the hands and knees.
b. To climb, as on a mountainside, by using both hands and feet for support but typically without using a rope or other specialized gear.
2. To struggle or contend frantically in order to get something: scrambled for the best seats.
3. To take off with all possible haste, as to intercept enemy aircraft.
4. Football
a. To run around with the ball behind the line of scrimmage in order to avoid being tackled while searching for an open receiver.
b. To run forward with the ball when unable to complete an intended pass play. Used of a quarterback.
5. Linguistics To move to another position in a syntactic structure, as for emphasis. Used of phrases or other syntactic constituents.
v. tr.
1. To mix or throw together haphazardly.
2. To gather together in a hurried or disorderly fashion.
3. To cook (beaten eggs) until firm but with a soft consistency.
4. Electronics To distort or garble (a signal) so as to render it unintelligible without a special receiver.
5. To cause (aircraft) to take off as fast as possible, as to intercept enemy aircraft.
n.
1. The act or an instance of scrambling.
2. An arduous hike or climb over rough terrain, especially one that requires the use of the hands for support but does not require specialized mountaineering gear.
3. A struggle for something: a scramble for new territory.
4. Sports See motocross.
5. A swift takeoff of military aircraft in response to an alert or attack.

[Perhaps blend of obsolete scamble, to struggle for, and dialectal cramble, to crawl.]

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.