dot

[ dot ]

/ dɒt /

Save This Word!

See synonyms for dot on Thesaurus.com

noun

a small, roundish mark made with or as if with a pen.

a minute or small spot on a surface; speck: There were dots of soot on the windowsill.

anything relatively small or specklike.

a small specimen, section, amount, or portion: a dot of butter.

a period, especially as used when pronouncing an internet address.

Music.

a point placed after a note or rest, to indicate that the duration of the note or rest is to be increased one half. A double dot further increases the duration by one half the value of the single dot.
a point placed under or over a note to indicate that it is to be played staccato.

Telegraphy. a signal of shorter duration than a dash, used in groups along with groups of dashes and spaces to represent letters, as in Morse code.

Printing. an individual element in a halftone reproduction.

verb (used with object), dot·ted, dot·ting.

to mark with or as if with a dot or dots.

to stud or diversify with or as if with dots: Trees dot the landscape.

to form or cover with dots: He dotted a line across the page.

Cooking. to sprinkle with dabs of butter, margarine, or the like: Dot the filling with butter.

verb (used without object), dot·ted, dot·ting.

to make a dot or dots.

QUIZ

WILL YOU SAIL OR STUMBLE ON THESE GRAMMAR QUESTIONS?

Smoothly step over to these common grammar mistakes that trip many people up. Good luck!

Question 1 of 7

Fill in the blank: I can’t figure out _____ gave me this gift.

who

whom

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Idioms about dot

dot one's i's and cross one's t's, to be meticulous or precise, even to the smallest detail.

on the dot, Informal. precisely; exactly at the time specified: The guests arrived at eight o'clock on the dot.

the year dot, British Informal. very long ago.

Origin of dot

First recorded before 1000; perhaps to be identified with Old English dott “head of a boil,” though not attested in Middle English; cf. dottle, dit, derivative of Old English dyttan “to stop up” (probably derivative of dott ); cognate with Old High German tutta “nipple”

OTHER WORDS FROM dot

dotlike, adjectivedotter, noun

Words nearby dot

dossier, dossil, dost, Dostoevsky, Dostoyevsky, Feodor, dot, dotage, dotard, dotation, dot ball, dot-com

Other definitions for dot (2 of 4)

dot²

[ dot, dawt ]

/ dɒt, dɔt /

noun Civil Law.

dowry (def. 1).

Origin of dot

First recorded in 1820–25; from French, from Latin dōtem, accusative of dōs “dowry,” akin to dare “to give”

OTHER WORDS FROM dot

do·tal

[doht-l], /ˈdoʊt l/, adjective

Other definitions for dot (3 of 4)

Dot

[ dot ]

/ dɒt /

noun

a female given name, form of Dorothea and Dorothy.

Other definitions for dot (4 of 4)

DOT

Department of Transportation.

Dictionary of Occupational Titles.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use dot in a sentence

You could be, but chances are, they aren’t watching your little green dot at all times.
‘It can take on a panopticon effect’: Slack’s presenteeism problem grows with no end in sight for remote work|Lucinda Southern|August 28, 2020|Digiday
Think of the colors assigned to the dots as coordinates which situate the dice in space.
Computer Search Settles 90-Year-Old Math Problem|Kevin Hartnett|August 19, 2020|Quanta Magazine
The process works a little like “connect the dots,” in which the software learns how to accurately fill in the missing pieces of information between the data points generated by the scanner.
Facebook and NYU researchers discover a way to speed up MRI scans|Jeremy Kahn|August 18, 2020|Fortune
Some also offer a chance to explore deeper by switching tabs or hovering on elements like dots or lines.
How We Designed The Look Of Our 2020 Forecast|Anna Wiederkehr (anna.wiederkehr@abc.com)|August 13, 2020|FiveThirtyEight

Hover over each of the dots to see how the map shook out in that simulation.
How We Designed The Look Of Our 2020 Forecast|Anna Wiederkehr (anna.wiederkehr@abc.com)|August 13, 2020|FiveThirtyEight
Shrubs and small trees dot a parched landscape along the road from Turbat to the border.
The Dangerous Drug-Funded Secret War Between Iran and Pakistan|Umar Farooq|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Above the notes of praise is a small photo of Guerin wearing a polka dot tie and pocket square, staring at you like a sociopath.
The Multimillion ‘Clairvoyance by Mail’ Scam|Jacob Siegel|November 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST
It was there, in small type, hosted on some dot-edu domain, looking the way websites did in the mid-1990s.
War Is Hell and Such Good Fun|Don Gomez|November 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Picasso, with his polka-dot shirt and clashing tie attempted an air of bravado, but lost confidence by the minute.
Did Picasso Try to Steal the Mona Lisa?|Nick Mafi|October 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
He drew a series of concentric circles on a page with a single dot—Robert Moses—in the center.
‘The Power Broker’ Turns 40: How Robert Caro Wrote a Masterpiece|Scott Porch|September 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Though Caroline only brought with her a dot of forty thousand francs, she stood for what was better still, immense possibilities.
Napoleon's Marshals|R. P. Dunn-Pattison
A dot or two, sometimes only one, sometimes as many as five, are thrown in as a rough way of indicating the features.
Children's Ways|James Sully
Typical "segmenters" present a ring of rounded segments or spores, each with a small, dot-like chromatin mass.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd
At three thousand yards a man appears as a mere dot, which is not readily distinguishable.
Outlines of the Earth's History|Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
All the way the scenery is pretty, but with no very striking features, and villas dot the roadside for a considerable distance.
The Portsmouth Road and Its Tributaries|Charles G. Harper

British Dictionary definitions for dot (1 of 2)

dot¹

/ (dɒt) /

noun

a small round mark made with or as with a pen, etc; spot; speck; point

anything resembling a dot; a small amounta dot of paint

the mark (˙) that appears above the main stem of the letters i, j

music

the symbol (·) placed after a note or rest to increase its time value by half
this symbol written above or below a note indicating that it must be played or sung staccato

maths logic

the symbol (.) indicating multiplication or logical conjunction
a decimal point

the symbol (·) used, in combination with the symbol for dash (–), in the written representation of Morse and other telegraphic codesCompare dit

the year dot informal as long ago as can be remembered

on the dot at exactly the arranged time

verb dots, dotting or dotted

(tr) to mark or form with a dotto dot a letter; a dotted crotchet

(tr) to scatter or intersperse (with dots or something resembling dots)bushes dotting the plain

(intr) to make a dot or dots

dot one's i's and cross one's t's to pay meticulous attention to detail

Derived forms of dot

dotter, noun

Word Origin for dot

Old English dott head of a boil; related to Old High German tutta nipple, Norwegian dott, Dutch dott lump

British Dictionary definitions for dot (2 of 2)

dot²

/ (dɒt) /

noun

civil law a woman's dowry

Derived forms of dot

dotal (ˈdəʊtəl), adjective

Word Origin for dot

C19: from French, from Latin dōs; related to dōtāre to endow, dāre to give

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for dot

dot

[ dŏt ]

A symbol (·) indicating multiplication, as in 2 · 4 = 8. It is used to indicate the dot product of vectors, for example A · B.

A period, as used as in URLs and e-mail addresses, to separate strings of words, as in www.hmco.com.

Other Idioms and Phrases with dot

dot

In addition to the idiom beginning with dot

dot the i's and cross the t's

also see:

on the dot
sign on the dotted line

dot

Idioms about dot

Origin of dot

OTHER WORDS FROM dot

Words nearby dot

Other definitions for dot (2 of 4)

Origin of dot

OTHER WORDS FROM dot

Other definitions for dot (3 of 4)

Other definitions for dot (4 of 4)

Words related to dot

How to use dot in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for dot (1 of 2)

Derived forms of dot

Word Origin for dot

British Dictionary definitions for dot (2 of 2)

Derived forms of dot

Word Origin for dot

Scientific definitions for dot

Other Idioms and Phrases with dot