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

Az·tlán

(äz-tlän)

1. In Aztec legend, the original home of the Aztec people, held to have been located in northwest Mexico.

2. The American Southwest, specifically the territory of northern Mexico ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The term is used especially by Chicano-rights activists.

[Nahuatl Aztlān : Az-, of unknown meaning + tlān, locative suffix.]

Word History: In Nahuatl, the suffix -tlān indicates location, and it is a part of the name of numerous place names associated with the Aztecs, such as Tenochtitlán. (The accent mark over the a is a feature of Spanish orthography.) Although the meaning of Az- is not known, according to a folk etymology first recorded by Fernando Alvarado Tezozómoc around 1598, 80 years after the Spanish conquest, the name of the city is a variant of Āztatlā, meaning “the place of snowy egrets” from the Nahuatl word for snowy egret, ātza. This word derives from the forms ā- (meaning “water”) and -tza-, meaning “white.”

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.

American Heritage Dictionary Products

HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY

THE USAGE PANEL

AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG

INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

American Heritage Dictionary Products