noun
lottery
LO-tuh-ree
noun
1
A game in which people buy numbered tickets and prizes are awarded to whichever numbers are drawn at random.
"He won ten thousand dollars in the state lottery."
"They pooled their money to buy lottery tickets every Friday."
2
Something whose outcome depends entirely on chance rather than effort or skill.
"Getting a good seat on the flight felt like a total lottery."
How to Use Lottery
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishA game of chance with tickets and prizes, or, more loosely, anything decided purely by luck.
Common pairings
win the lottery
lottery ticket
lottery numbers
Word Forms
lotteries plural
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He won ten thousand dollars in the state _____.
Etymology
From Italian lotteria, ultimately related to the Old English word "hlot," the ancestor of "lot."