dot

¹

[ dot ]

noun

1. a small, roundish mark made with or as if with a pen.
2. a minute or small spot on a surface; speck:

   There were dots of soot on the windowsill.

3. anything relatively small or specklike.
4. a small specimen, section, amount, or portion:

   a dot of butter.

5. a period, especially as used when pronouncing an internet address.
6. Music.
   1. a point placed after a note or rest, to indicate that the duration of the note or rest is to be increased one half. A double dot further increases the duration by one half the value of the single dot.
   2. a point placed under or over a note to indicate that it is to be played staccato.
7. Telegraphy. a signal of shorter duration than a dash, used in groups along with groups of dashes and spaces to represent letters, as in Morse code.
8. Printing. an individual element in a halftone reproduction.

verb (used with object)

, dot·ted, dot·ting.

1. to mark with or as if with a dot or dots.
2. to stud or diversify with or as if with dots:

   Trees dot the landscape.

3. to form or cover with dots:

   He dotted a line across the page.

4. Cooking. to sprinkle with dabs of butter, margarine, or the like:

   Dot the filling with butter.

verb (used without object)

, dot·ted, dot·ting.

1. to make a dot or dots.

dot

²

[ dot, dawt ]

noun

, Civil Law.

1. dowry ( def 1 ).

Dot

³

[ dot ]

noun

1. a female given name, form of Dorothea and Dorothy.

DOT

⁴

abbreviation for

1. damage over time: (in a video game) an attack that results in light or moderate damage when it is dealt, but that wounds or weakens the receiving character, who continues to lose health in small increments for a specified period of time, or until healed by a spell, potion, etc.
2. Department of Transportation.
3. Dictionary of Occupational Titles: reference book formerly published by the Department of Labor with job titles, descriptions, and official classifications, discontinued in 1999 and replaced by the online Occupational Informational Network.

dot

¹

/ ˈdəʊtəl; dɒt /

noun

1. civil law a woman's dowry

dot

²

/ dɒt /

noun

1. a small round mark made with or as with a pen, etc; spot; speck; point
2. anything resembling a dot; a small amount

   a dot of paint

3. the mark (˙) that appears above the main stem of the letters i, j
4. music
   1. the symbol (·) placed after a note or rest to increase its time value by half
   2. this symbol written above or below a note indicating that it must be played or sung staccato
5. maths logic
   1. the symbol (.) indicating multiplication or logical conjunction
   2. a decimal point
6. the symbol (·) used, in combination with the symbol for dash (–), in the written representation of Morse and other telegraphic codes Compare dit
7. the year dot informal.
   as long ago as can be remembered
8. on the dot
   at exactly the arranged time

verb

1. tr to mark or form with a dot

   a dotted crotchet

   to dot a letter

2. tr to scatter or intersperse (with dots or something resembling dots)

   bushes dotting the plain

3. intr to make a dot or dots
4. dot one's i's and cross one's t's
   to pay meticulous attention to detail

dot

/ dŏt /

1. A symbol (·) indicating multiplication, as in 2 · 4 = 8. It is used to indicate the dot product of vectors, for example A · B .
2. A period, as used as in URLs and e-mail addresses, to separate strings of words, as in www.hmco.com .

Derived Forms

• dotal, adjective
• ˈdotter, noun

Other Words From

• dotlike adjective
• dotter noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of dot¹

First recorded before 1000; perhaps to be identified with Old English dott “head of a boil,” though not attested in Middle English; dottle, dit, derivative of Old English dyttan “to stop up” (probably derivative of dott ); cognate with Old High German tutta “nipple”

Origin of dot²

First recorded in 1820–25; from French, from Latin dōtem, accusative of dōs “dowry,” akin to dare “to give”

Word History and Origins

Origin of dot¹

C19: from French, from Latin dōs; related to dōtāre to endow, dāre to give

Origin of dot²

Old English dott head of a boil; related to Old High German tutta nipple, Norwegian dott, Dutch dott lump

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. dot one's i's and cross one's t's, to be meticulous or precise, even to the smallest detail.
2. on the dot, Informal. precisely; exactly at the time specified:

   The guests arrived at eight o'clock on the dot.

3. the year dot, British Informal. very long ago.

More idioms and phrases containing dot

In addition to the idiom beginning with dot , also see on the dot ; sign on the dotted line .

Example Sentences

You could be, but chances are, they aren’t watching your little green dot at all times.

From Digiday

Think of the colors assigned to the dots as coordinates which situate the dice in space.

From Quanta Magazine

The process works a little like “connect the dots,” in which the software learns how to accurately fill in the missing pieces of information between the data points generated by the scanner.

From Fortune

Hover over each of the dots to see how the map shook out in that simulation.

From FiveThirtyEight

Some also offer a chance to explore deeper by switching tabs or hovering on elements like dots or lines.

From FiveThirtyEight

Shrubs and small trees dot a parched landscape along the road from Turbat to the border.

From The Daily Beast

Above the notes of praise is a small photo of Guerin wearing a polka dot tie and pocket square, staring at you like a sociopath.

From The Daily Beast

It was there, in small type, hosted on some dot-edu domain, looking the way websites did in the mid-1990s.

From The Daily Beast

Picasso, with his polka-dot shirt and clashing tie attempted an air of bravado, but lost confidence by the minute.

From The Daily Beast

He drew a series of concentric circles on a page with a single dot—Robert Moses—in the center.

From The Daily Beast

Though Caroline only brought with her a dot of forty thousand francs, she stood for what was better still, immense possibilities.

From Project Gutenberg

A dot or two, sometimes only one, sometimes as many as five, are thrown in as a rough way of indicating the features.

From Project Gutenberg

Typical "segmenters" present a ring of rounded segments or spores, each with a small, dot-like chromatin mass.

From Project Gutenberg

At three thousand yards a man appears as a mere dot, which is not readily distinguishable.

From Project Gutenberg

All the way the scenery is pretty, but with no very striking features, and villas dot the roadside for a considerable distance.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• dab
• droplet
• fleck
• speck