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.
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.
AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP
The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android.
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.
INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?
Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com
n. 1. a. Any of various twining herbs of the genus Phaseolus in the pea family, native to the Americas, having leaves with three leaflets and variously colored flowers, and widely cultivated for their edible pods and seeds. b. A seed or pod of any of these plants. 2. Any of several related plants or their seeds or pods, such as the adzuki bean, broad bean, or soybean. 3. Any of various other plants or their seeds or fruits, especially those suggestive of beans such as the coffee bean or vanilla bean. 4. Slang A person's head. 5. beans Slang A small amount: I don't know beans about investing. 6. Chiefly British A fellow; a chap. tr.v. beaned, bean·ing, beans Idioms: Slang To hit (another) on the head with a thrown object, especially a pitched baseball. full of beans 1. Energetic; frisky: The children were too full of beans to sit still. 2. Badly mistaken: Don't believe him; he's full of beans. spill the beans To disclose a secret. [Middle English ben, broad bean, from Old English bēan; see bha-bhā- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
American frontiersman in Texas who in 1881 appointed himself justice of the peace and handed down judgments based on one law book and one six-shooter. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
