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
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.
The NBA has worked to counteract the incentives to tank, including by smoothing the odds of that lottery to narrow the odds between the merely bad teams and the abjectly awful ones.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 14, 2026
Rival motoring group the AA said the chances of motorists seeing a cut in fuel prices would depend on where they lived due to what it called "the pump-price postcode lottery".
From BBC • Apr. 14, 2026
The patient said "it was like winning the lottery twice", added Myhre, who was also the lead author of a study describing the case in Nature Microbiology.
From Barron's • Apr. 13, 2026
Friday is the deadline for parents — many weighing public vs. private education — to accept or decline offers via the district’s enrollment lottery system for its vaunted magnet schools and other programs.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2026
At first, nursing was like hitting the lottery.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
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.
