lottery
Americannoun
plural
lotteries-
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.
-
any scheme for the distribution of prizes by chance.
-
any happening or process that is or appears to be determined by chance.
to look upon life as a lottery.
noun
-
a method of raising money by selling numbered tickets and giving a proportion of the money raised to holders of numbers drawn at random
-
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
-
an activity or endeavour the success of which is regarded as a matter of fate or luck
Other Word Forms
- antilottery adjective
Etymology
Origin of lottery
First recorded in 1560–70, lottery is from the Middle Dutch word loterie (whence also French loterie ). See lot, -ery
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.
The Southern Trust is the only trust in Northern Ireland without an inpatient addiction rehabilitation facility, which campaigners have said has created a "postcode lottery".
From BBC
“There are certain companies where it’s almost like playing the lottery,” he said.
More than 100,000 people entered the lottery for about 200 tours in December and January, making the EV plant harder to get into than some competitive colleges.
By the end of kindergarten, children who were randomly selected through a lottery to attend Montessori preschools outperformed their peers in reading, executive function, short-term memory, and social understanding.
From Science Daily
So what effect does this so-called "lottery" of early years provision have, not only on the family but on the child and their future?
From BBC
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.
