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

Steve Clarke's Scots suffered 1-0 friendly defeats by Japan and by Ivory Coast earlier this month.

From BBC • Apr. 9, 2026

While he described welfare as a necessary "safety net", he vowed to get thousands of economically inactive Scots back into work.

From BBC • Mar. 19, 2026

Their plan was good in theory: The Scots would carve a route across Panama and control trade between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026

McArthur accused those who rejected the bill of a "woefully inadequate response to the suffering and trauma experienced by dying Scots and their families".

From BBC • Mar. 17, 2026

As the Ulster Scots arrived in the British colonies, they settled in Pennsylvania and in other British-held areas on the homelands of several Indigenous nations.

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