hot
Americanadjective
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hotter,
comparative
-
hottest
superlative
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having or giving off heat; having a high temperature.
a hot fire;
hot coffee.
- Antonyms:
- cold
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having or causing a sensation of great bodily heat; attended with or producing such a sensation.
He was hot with fever.
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creating a burning sensation, as on the skin or in the throat.
This ointment is hot, so apply it sparingly.
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sharply peppery or pungent.
Is this mustard hot?
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having or showing intense or violent feeling; ardent; fervent; vehement; excited.
a hot temper.
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Informal. having a strong enthusiasm; eager.
a hot baseball fan.
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Slang.
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sexually aroused; lustful.
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sexy; attractive.
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violent, furious, or intense.
the hottest battle of the war.
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strong or fresh, as a scent or trail.
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absolutely new; fresh.
a dozen new mystery stories hot from the press.
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requiring immediate delivery or correspondence; demanding priority.
The hot freight must be delivered by 10:00 a.m. tomorrow, or we'll lose the contract.
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Slang. skillful in a reckless or daring way.
a hot pilot.
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following very closely; close.
to be hot on the trail of a thief.
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(of colors) extremely intense.
hot pink.
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Informal. popular and commercially successful; in demand; marketable.
The Beatles were a hot group in the 1960s.
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Slang. extremely lucky, good, or favorable.
A poker player has to have a hot hand to win the pot.
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Slang. (in sports and games) playing well or winningly; scoring effectively.
a hot pitcher.
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Slang. funny; absurd.
That's a hot one!
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Games. close to the object or answer that is being sought.
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Informal. extremely exciting or interesting; sensational or scandalous.
a hot news story.
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Jazz.
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(of music) emotionally intense, propulsive, and marked by aggressive attack and warm, full tone.
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(of a musician) skilled in playing hot jazz.
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Informal. (of a vehicle) capable of attaining extremely high speeds.
a hot new jet plane.
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Slang.
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Informal. in the mood to perform exceedingly well, or rapidly, as during a burst of creative work.
Finish writing that story while you're still hot.
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actively conducting an electric current or containing a high voltage.
a hot wire.
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of, relating to, or noting radioactivity.
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Metalworking. noting any process involving plastic deformation of a metal at a temperature high enough to permit recrystallization due to the strain.
hot working.
adverb
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in a hot manner; hotly.
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while hot.
Garnish the potatoes with parsley and serve hot.
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Metalworking. at a temperature high enough to permit recrystallization.
The wire was drawn hot.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
idioms
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hot under the collar. collar.
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get hot, (in sports and games) to become very effective or successful; score or win repeatedly or easily.
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make it hot for, to make something unpleasant for; cause trouble for.
Ever since their argument the principal has been making it hot for the new teacher.
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hot and bothered, excited, aroused, or flustered: Also all hot and bothered.
This mistake isn't worth getting hot and bothered about.
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hot and heavy, in an intense, vehement, or passionate manner.
They argued hot and heavy for 20 minutes.
adjective
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having a relatively high temperature
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having a temperature higher than desirable
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causing or having a sensation of bodily heat
-
causing a burning sensation on the tongue
hot mustard
a hot curry
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expressing or feeling intense emotion, such as embarrassment, anger, or lust
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intense or vehement
a hot argument
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recent; fresh; new
a hot trial
hot from the press
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ball games (of a ball) thrown or struck hard, and so difficult to respond to
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much favoured or approved
a hot tip
a hot favourite
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informal having a dangerously high level of radioactivity
a hot laboratory
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slang (of goods or money) stolen, smuggled, or otherwise illegally obtained
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slang (of people) being sought by the police
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informal sexually attractive
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(of a colour) intense; striking
hot pink
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close or following closely
hot on the scent
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informal at a dangerously high electric potential
a hot terminal
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physics having an energy level higher than that of the ground state
a hot atom
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slang impressive or good of its kind (esp in the phrase not so hot )
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slang jazz arousing great excitement or enthusiasm by inspired improvisation, strong rhythms, etc
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informal dangerous or unpleasant (esp in the phrase make it hot for someone )
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(in various searching or guessing games) very near the answer or object to be found
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metallurgy (of a process) at a sufficiently high temperature for metal to be in a soft workable state
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informal (of a price, charge, etc) excessive
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to punish or thrash someone
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informal
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very severe
the police are hot on drunk drivers
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particularly skilled at or knowledgeable about
he's hot on vintage cars
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informal aroused with anger, annoyance, etc
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informal in trouble, esp with those in authority
adverb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of hot
First recorded before 1000; 1920–25 hot for def. 23; Middle English ho(o)t, Old English hāt; cognate with Dutch heet, Old Norse heitr, Swedish het, Danish hed, German heiss
Explanation
Hot is the opposite of cold. This could mean a hot day in July, a baseball team on a hot streak, or a hot bikini model. Most meanings of hot have to do with heat: what makes us sweat. A stove can be red hot. Spicy food is hot, and newspapers used to be "hot off the presses" because the printing process actually warmed the paper. New things are often referred to as hot — like a hot new band. Stolen property is also called hot because you can't hold onto it too long or it will burn you — though perhaps not in the usual way.
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:
Critics say they will add demand to electricity grids still heavily reliant on planet-warming fossil fuels, and place new pressure on often-stretched local water supplies to cool down hot servers.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
Ohtani didn’t will a hot streak into existence then.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2026
Back on the ground, our patrol has found another hot spot.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
For more than seven decades, fusion researchers have relied on a mathematical rule to determine whether plasma can remain sufficiently hot and dense, for a long enough period, to sustain fusion without additional external heating.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 10, 2026
Early in the morning though it was, the tar beneath the shingled roof was beginning to bubble in the hot July sun.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Flash purchasing manager index surveys have come in hotter than expected.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
Sork’s lab, along with the Nature Conservancy, is sequencing oak DNA to identify which trees are best built to survive a hotter, drier California.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
In this scenario, dense, water-rich portions of Earth's cooler outer crust periodically sagged downward and collapsed into the hotter mantle, transporting water with them.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 13, 2026
It added that hotter weather benefited some businesses while creating challenges for others.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
As the summer days grew hotter and hotter, Chandra and I would stand in the courtyard every afternoon, looking up at the sky, waiting for the rains to cool us.
From "Homeless Bird" by Gloria Whelan
It was also the hottest liquid ever known, reaching temperatures of several trillion degrees Celsius during its brief existence.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
Watch Ben Fritz explain how Warner Bros. went from the hottest studio in Hollywood to another victim of the streaming wars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
The months of June, July and August were each the hottest ever recorded in Switzerland since measurements began in 1864.
From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026
“I’ve been coming to games my whole life and this is easily the hottest game I’ve ever been to,” said Gonzalez, 38, of Culver City.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
Although the house was not much cooler, there were at least fans in there, and Mrs. Moss parked the babies in front of the TV during the hottest part of the afternoon.
From "Three Little Words: A Memoir" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
As debate hotted up, one Twitter user provided a sympathetic look at life from the view of an empty seat with @OlympicSeat, whose profile reads: "I feel nothing but emptiness."
From Reuters ● Aug. 12, 2012
Strong colors from cobalt blue to mixes of fuchsia and orange hotted up the show.
From New York Times ● Jun. 21, 2011
Capital immediately rejected the idea and said it would press on, and today the war of words hotted up.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 8, 2010
The race really hotted up on the penultimate lap when Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus burst into flames.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 26, 2010
"Will you have cold pork for your supper," asked the hard-faced maid, as she cleared the table, "or will you have it hotted up?"
From The Chronicles of Clovis by Saki
Behind the top three, the battle for a place in next season's Champions League is hotting up as Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United all secured important wins.
From Barron's ● Feb. 1, 2026
In New York, another Drum Cafe session is hotting up.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2022
Trends in single-family homes are more of what we’ve been seeing for the past months: Markets in outlying counties keep hotting up as King County keeps slowing down.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 5, 2019
Look at how this is hotting up, and it’s only just gone 9am on the Friday!
From The Guardian ● Jul. 19, 2019
“Well, things are hotting up. You must have noticed.”
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
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.
