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• dot
  dot

  noun

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

  noun

  a female given name, form of Dorothea and Dorothy.
• DOT
  DOT

  abbreviation

  damage over time: (in a video game) an attack that results in light or moderate damage when it is dealt, but that wounds or weakens the receiving character, who continues to lose health in small increments for a specified period of time, or until healed by a spell, potion, etc.

SEE ALSO:

Acronyms dictionary results for DOT.

dot

¹ American  

[dot] / dɒt /

noun

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

2. a minute or small spot on a surface; speck.

   There were dots of soot on the windowsill.

3. anything relatively small or specklike.

4. a small specimen, section, amount, or portion.

   a dot of butter.

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

6. Music.

   1. 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.

   2. a point placed under or over a note to indicate that it is to be played staccato.

7. 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.

8. Printing. an individual element in a halftone reproduction.

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verb (used with object)

• dots,
  present (3rd person singular)
• dotted,
  past participle,  past
• dotting
  present participle

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

2. to stud or diversify with or as if with dots.

   Trees dot the landscape.

3. to form or cover with dots.

   He dotted a line across the page.

4. Cooking. to sprinkle with dabs of butter, margarine, or the like.

   Dot the filling with butter.

verb (used without object)

• dots,
  present (3rd person singular)
• dotted,
  past participle,  past
• dotting
  present participle

1. to make a dot or dots.

idioms

1. on the dot, precisely; exactly at the time specified.

   The guests arrived at eight o'clock on the dot.

2. the year dot, very long ago.

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

dot ² American  

[dot, dawt] / dɒt, dɔt /

noun

Civil Law.

1. dowry.

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Dot ³ American  

[dot] / dɒt /

noun

1. a female given name, form of Dorothea and Dorothy.

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DOT ⁴ American  

abbreviation

1. damage over time: (in a video game) an attack that results in light or moderate damage when it is dealt, but that wounds or weakens the receiving character, who continues to lose health in small increments for a specified period of time, or until healed by a spell, potion, etc.

2. Department of Transportation.

3. Dictionary of Occupational Titles: reference book formerly published by the Department of Labor with job titles, descriptions, and official classifications, discontinued in 1999 and replaced by the online Occupational Informational Network.

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dot ¹ British  

/ dɒt /

noun

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

2. anything resembling a dot; a small amount

   a dot of paint

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

4. music

   1. the symbol (·) placed after a note or rest to increase its time value by half

   2. this symbol written above or below a note indicating that it must be played or sung staccato

5. maths logic

   1. the symbol (.) indicating multiplication or logical conjunction

   2. a decimal point

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

7. informal as long ago as can be remembered

8. at exactly the arranged time

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verb

1. (tr) to mark or form with a dot

   to dot a letter

   a dotted crotchet

2. (tr) to scatter or intersperse (with dots or something resembling dots)

   bushes dotting the plain

3. (intr) to make a dot or dots

4. to pay meticulous attention to detail

dot ² British  

/ ˈdəʊtəl, dɒt /

noun

1. civil law a woman's dowry

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dot Scientific  

/ dŏt /

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

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

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dot More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing dot

• on the dot
• sign on the dotted line

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• dotter
  noun
• dotal
  adjective
• dotlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• dotting
  present
• dotted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• dot
  simple
• dots
  simple
• have dotted
  perfect
• has dotted
  perfect
• am dotting
  progressive
• are dotting
  progressive
• is dotting
  progressive
• have been dotting
  perfect progressive
• has been dotting
  perfect progressive

Past

• dotted
  simple
• had dotted
  perfect
• was dotting
  progressive
• were dotting
  progressive
• had been dotting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will dot
  simple
• will have dotted
  perfect
• will be dotting
  progressive
• will have been dotting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of dot¹

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”

Origin of dot²

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

Explanation

A dot is a round speck or spot. A first grade teacher might remind his students to put dots on their is and js. A period, a little circle or point, is a dot. Another kind is a polka dot, which might decorate your favorite pair of shorts or the curtains in your room. In Morse code, a dot is a short signal, as opposed to the longer "dash." When you recite your website's URL, you might end with "dot com." As a verb, to dot is to mark something with a dot: "You forgot to dot your is!"

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dot Dot DOT dots dotted dotting

The dot plot was promising markets a zero funds rate all the way out to year-end 2023.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

The telescope detected the bright red dot in the very early universe, only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 13, 2026

But while looking through the images, they spotted a little red dot.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

Eco-lodges dot the area, a destination for hikers and boaters to view one of Alaska’s densest populations of brown bears.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

Freckles dot over the bridge of her nose.

From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera

The company last year rolled out its own autonomous delivery robot called Dot, which fulfills orders in the Phoenix area and Fremont, Calif.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

What do a dragon, rugby player, miner and Dot Cotton have in common?

From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026

A mural depicting life in a Welsh village has left some people scratching their heads, as it features the Eastenders legend Dot Cotton.

From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026

In contrast, at Locke, Green Dot agreed to manage an existing, massively struggling, eyesore campus associated with periodic brawls, truancy, single-digit academic proficiency rates, a 40% graduation rate and few college graduates.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026

Dot freed herself from the mud at last, scampering up the ravine and out of sight.

From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman

But if you opt for a refund, it can be sent in the form of a flight credit or a cash refund, according to DOT rules.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026

But Ben Brake, director general of DOT Europe, whose members include Amazon and Apple, said "retaliating against US corporations in response to trade disputes will neither drive innovation nor strengthen Europe's competitiveness".

From Barron's ● May 30, 2026

The DOT said Duffy and his family didn’t earn salary or royalties from the project, and that filming took place on several weekends and some days while his children were on spring break.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026

Other roadways on the island experienced rockfalls on Saturday, the Hawaii DOT posted.

From BBC ● Mar. 22, 2026

Then came the trial of the small boats, and Tom was pleased to note that Miss Nestor was on hand in the tiny DOT.

From Tom Swift and His Motor-Boat, or, the Rivals of Lake Carlopa by Victor [pseud.] Appleton

"These little red dots seem to be everywhere in the early universe but essentially disappear by the present day," Naidu says.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 13, 2026

Astronomers announced Wednesday they had discovered a new type of astronomical object called a "black hole star", potentially solving a mystery involving strange red dots spotted in the early universe.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

Maybe the only way to justify a magnetic attraction to wanting my bags, shoes and belts to be studded, spiky, pierced and heavy is by connecting the dots.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

Zoë Billingham, a former independent police inspector who pushed for reforms on how violence against women in girls is policed, said that "too often in cases like this the dots aren't being joined up".

From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026

Mary’s was a china-blue pattern on a white ground, and Laura’s was dark red with little golden-brown dots on it.

From "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The house, which has fascinated generations of commuters, was built in 1963 by Sam Harkleroad, a tinkerer who dotted Marin County with unconventional dwellings before he died in 1993.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

I studied the pastries while pretending not to listen: tea-infused buns knotted with candied citrus, laminated pastry layered with spiced cream cheese, craggy oat muffins dotted with boysenberry preserves.

From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026

"You can see little green stars all dotted around."

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

"We dotted every I, crossed every T, filled every document, attended every appointment. He was close to obtaining his legal status."

From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026

Looking inland, he saw grassy hills dotted with trees.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

“No matter what the federal government was doing, they knew that if they weren’t dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s, they were going to get called to account,” Hilton said.

From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2026

Few of Portugal’s many hill towns dotting the border with Spain can claim to be as unapologetically spare and atmospheric as Castelo Rodrigo.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026

Almost all of Mandalay's flattened or toppled residential buildings have been cleared away, some of them already rebuilt and others remaining as fenced-off empty lots dotting the city.

From Barron's ● Mar. 26, 2026

Benefitting from quick ball, the visitors drove into the Saints 22, before Marcus Smith eventually found Cleaves on a perfect line to split the home defence before dotting down.

From BBC ● Jan. 3, 2026

Students coming home from school are easy to spot, their backpacks and fat headphones dotting the crowds.

From "Warcross" by Marie Lu

Related Words

• dab
• droplet
• fleck
• speck