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   dot

   /dät/

   noun

   • 1. a small round mark or spot: "a symbol depicted in colored dots"
   • ▪ a dot written or printed as part of an i or j, as a diacritical mark, as one of a series of marks to signify omission, or as a period.
   • ▪ a dot used to denote the lengthening of a note or rest by half, or to indicate staccato.
   • ▪ the shorter signal of the two used in Morse code.
   • ▪ used to refer to an object that appears tiny because it is far away: "the desert shrank figures to mere dots"
   • ▪ used to indicate the punctuation separating parts of an email or website address: "OUP dot com"

   verb

   • 1. mark with a small spot or spots: "wet spots of rain began to dot his shirt" Similar spotfleckbespecklemarkdabstipplepockfrecklesprinkledustliterary:befleckbestrewbesprinkle
   • ▪ (of a number of items) be scattered over (an area): "churches dot the countryside" Similar scatterpeppersprinklestrewlitterpunctuatestudcoverspreaddisperseinterspersedistribute
   • ▪ place a dot over (a letter): "you need to dot the i"
   • ▪ mark (a note or rest) to show that the time value is increased by half: "dotting the quarter note for everyone is a common practice"

   Word Origin Old Englishdott ‘head of a boil’. The word is recorded only once in Old English, then not until the late 16th century, when it is found in the sense ‘a small lump or clot’, perhaps influenced by Dutch dot ‘a knot’. The sense ‘small mark or spot’ dates from the mid 17th century.

   Derivatives

   • 1. dotter noun

   Scrabble Points: 4

   • D

     2

   • O

     1

   • T

     1

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