Scots

American  

[skots] / skɒts /

noun

1. Also called Scottish.  the English language as spoken in Scotland.

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adjective

1. Scottish.

Scots British  

/ skɒts /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of Scotland, its people, their English dialects, or their Gaelic language

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noun

1. any of the English dialects spoken or written in Scotland See also Lallans

Commonly Confused

See Scotch.

Etymology

Origin of Scots

1325–75; syncopated form of Scottis, Middle English, variant (north) of Scottish

Example Sentences

And seven decades earlier, Hearts missed out on the 1915 championship, because 13 of its players abruptly left the team: They had enlisted in the Royal Scots battalion to go fight in the Great War.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 15, 2026

"Soccer is supposed to bring people together," said Sean McDonald, a member of the Scots American Club, which is linked to the historic Kearny Scots soccer team founded in 1895.

From Barron's • May 13, 2026

Most Scots are better off under the current tax system.

From BBC • May 5, 2026

As early as 1753, someone known only by his initials, C.M., had proposed in the Scots Magazine that electricity could be used to send messages down a wire.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 26, 2026

During the first two decades after the war for independence from Britain, large numbers of first- and second-generation Ulster Scots moved westward into the Ohio Valley, western Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz