lottery
Americannoun
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lotteries
plural
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a gambling game or method of raising money, as for some public charitable purpose, in which a large number of tickets are sold and a drawing is held for certain prizes.
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any scheme for the distribution of prizes by chance.
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any happening or process that is or appears to be determined by chance.
to look upon life as a lottery.
noun
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a method of raising money by selling numbered tickets and giving a proportion of the money raised to holders of numbers drawn at random
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a similar method of raising money in which players select a small group of numbers out of a larger group printed on a ticket. If a player's selection matches some or all of the numbers drawn at random the player wins a proportion of the prize fund
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an activity or endeavour the success of which is regarded as a matter of fate or luck
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of lottery
First recorded in 1560–70, lottery is from the Middle Dutch word loterie (whence also French loterie ). See lot, -ery
Explanation
A lottery is a contest where players buy tickets and have a random (and low) chance of winning. Finding true love and getting hit by lightning are often said to be as likely as winning the lottery. A lottery can be a state-run contest promising big bucks to the lucky winners, or a lottery can also be any contest where the winners are selected at random. For example, some schools choose students by using a lottery system. Regardless of the type of lottery, a lottery works where there is great demand for something and only a limited number of winners.
Vocabulary lists containing lottery
Workshop 3, Part 1
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Selection Vocabulary 2, Unit 1
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for April 16–April 22, 2022
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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:
"Treatment for FND can be a postcode lottery," she said.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
It must have felt like winning the lottery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
Tickets for the Paralympics will also go on sale in 2027, beginning with a lottery for assigned time slots, similar to the first Olympic ticket drops.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
The idea that anyone can suddenly be endowed with superhuman specialness simply by being in the right place at the right time is a little like daydreaming about winning the lottery.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
With the raffling of the mule, Petra Cotes and he bought some more animals with which they managed to set up a primitive lottery business.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Other leagues have draft lotteries to diminish the incentive for being completely terrible.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 29, 2025
What to know about dynamic pricing, lotteries and sale dates while trying to score seats.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2025
"It would be like winning four lotteries in a row. You've got to use a bit of common sense and be sensible and logical about it."
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2025
Still, he put a lot of money into the campaign and launched some provocative tactics, such as offering million-dollar lotteries for people to sign petitions and register to vote.
From Salon ● Apr. 14, 2025
They kiss my cheeks and hold my hand and tell me how they won money in the kingdom's lotteries by betting on me to be named the favorite.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
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.
