casino
Americannoun
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casinos
plural
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a building or large room used for meetings, entertainment, dancing, etc., especially such a place equipped with gambling devices, gambling tables, etc.
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(in Italy) a small country house or lodge.
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Cards. Also cassino a game in which cards that are face up on the table are taken with eligible cards in the hand.
noun
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a public building or room in which gaming takes place, esp roulette and card games such as baccarat and chemin de fer
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a variant spelling of cassino
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of casino
1780–90; < Italian, equivalent to cas(a) “house” + -ino diminutive suffix
Explanation
A casino is a building where people can gamble and play games of chance. Your grandmother might enjoy taking weekend bus trips to the nearest casino with her friends. Many casinos are near — or inside — hotels, and include opportunities to dine, drink, and shop. The main event at a casino, however, is the chance to gamble either by betting money on games like blackjack or poker, or by putting coins in a slot machine. Casino is also the name of a card game. The word comes from the Italian casa, or "house." In the 1800s casino came to mean "building for aristocratic gambling."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The hotel and casino company confirmed during an earnings call last week that it is currently assessing the offer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Sometimes people snag a $1.50 hot dog from a cart on the casino floor while they wait.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Burnham's Everton have a link to Stake.com, a crypto casino without a licence to operate in the UK.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
Monroe said that before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a trend among casino operators to split into operating companies and property owners.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
My dad, who had a lifelong habit of switching jobs almost every year, took a position as a construction superintendent rebuilding a beachfront hotel and casino.
From "Hole in My Life" by Jack Gantos
Evolution, which provides online games and the technology behind online casinos, declined to comment on the news.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
The ban wouldn’t have affected Native American casinos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
He also developed a reputation as a partier because of his frequent trips to casinos and jet-setting lifestyle.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026
For a time, my father, Ron, made fiberglass rocks—the kind used in zoos and casinos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
Along Main Street was a grocery store, a drugstore, a Ford dealership, a Greyhound bus station, and two big casinos, the Owl Club and the Nevada Hotel.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
