The Usage Panel HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key. Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window. guide to the dictionary THE USAGE PANEL The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions. The Panelists NEED HELP SOLVING A CROSSWORD PUZZLE? Go to our Crossword Puzzle Solver and type in the letters that you know, and the Solver will produce a list of possible solutions. -- AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android. THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more. OPEN DICTIONARY PROJECT Share your ideas for new words and new meanings of old words! Start Sharing Now! -- See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series! Find out more! INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES? Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com Sherman Alexie Poet; fiction writer Eric Alterman Author; Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism, Brooklyn College, City University of New York Roger Angell Writer; editor Natalie Angier Science journalist; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Kwame Anthony Appiah Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University Margaret Atwood Writer Kathryn H. Au Chief Executive Officer, SchoolRise, LLC; former Dai Ho Chun Professor of Education, University of Hawaii John Baugh Margaret Bush Wilson Professor in Arts and Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis; Professor Emeritus of Education and Linguistics, Stanford University Alison Bechdel Cartoonist Carolyn Wilkerson Bell Susan Duval Adams Professor of English Emerita, Randolph-Macon Women's College Harold Bloom Sterling Professor of the Humanities and English, Yale University; MacArthur Fellow Paul Bloom Professor of Psychology, Yale University Roy Blount, Jr. Writer; radio commentator; former president, Authors Guild Katherine Boo Author; staff writer, The New Yorker; MacArthur Fellow; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Leo Braudy University Professor and Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Literature, University of Southern California Joan Bresnan Sadie Dernham Patek Professor Emerita in Humanities and Senior Researcher at the Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University Rachel M. Brownstein Professor of English, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York Stephen Budiansky Writer Lorene Cary Writer Michael Chabon Writer; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Walter C. Clemens, Jr. Writer; Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Boston University; Associate, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University Ta-Nehisi Coates Writer, The Atlantic Robin Cook Physician; writer Maureen Corrigan Writer; book reviewer; Lecturer and Critic in Residence, Department of English, Georgetown University Anne Curzan Professor of English, University of Michigan Gene D. Dahmen Attorney; former president, Boston Bar Association; partner, Verrill Dana, LLP Lydia Davis Author; translator; Professor Emerita, State University of New York—Albany Junot Díaz Author; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Joan Didion Author Annie Dillard Writer; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Mark Doty Poet; Distinguished Writer, Rutgers University Rita Dove Writer; Commonwealth Professor of English, University of Virginia; recipient, Pulitzer Prize; former US poet laureate Esther Dyson Chairman, EDventure Holdings Freeman J. Dyson Writer; physicist; Professor Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study Connie Eble Professor of English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Anne Edwards Biographer; novelist; former President, Authors Guild Louise Erdrich Author Carolly Erickson Historian; writer James Fallows Writer; national correspondent, The Atlantic Drew Gilpin Faust Historian; President, Harvard University Frances FitzGerald Writer; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Margalit Fox Author; senior writer, The New York Times Elizabeth Frank Writer; Joseph E. Harry Professor of Modern Languages and Literature, Bard College; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Jonathan Franzen Writer Mary Gaitskill Novelist Catherine Gallagher Eggers Professor of English Literature, University of California, Berkeley Sara Garnes Linguist; Associate Professor of English Emerita, Ohio State University Michael G. Gartner Former president, Board of Regents, State of Iowa; language columnist; former president, NBC News; former president, American Society of Newspaper Editors; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University J. Edward Gates Lexicographer; editor; Professor Emeritus of English, Indiana State University James Gleick Author; columnist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein Writer; MacArthur Fellow Adam Gopnik Writer; staff writer, The New Yorker Peter Gordon Puzzlemaker; crossword editor Annette Gordon-Reed Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History, Harvard Law School; Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; MacArthur Fellow; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Jonathan Gottschall Author; Professor of English, Washington and Jefferson College Philip Gourevitch Writer; former editor, The Paris Review Francine du Plessix Gray Writer Georgia M. Green Writer; Professor Emerita of Linguistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Stephen Greenblatt John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University Robert Lane Greene Author; Correspondent and language columnist, The Economist Linda Gregerson Poet; critic; Caroline Walker Bynum Distinguished University Professor of English, University of Michigan Alma Guillermoprieto Writer; staff writer, The New Yorker; MacArthur Fellow Jessica Hagedorn Novelist; poet Patricia Hampl Writer; Regents’ Professor of English, University of Minnesota Sam Harris Author; neuroscientist Robert Hass Former US poet laureate; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Joel Havemann Author; former correspondent, Los Angeles Times Marti Hearst Professor, School of Information, University of California, Berkeley William Least Heat-Moon Writer Mark Helprin Writer Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University Oscar Hijuelos Author; recipient, Pulitzer Prize and Rome Prize Douglas R. Hofstadter Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Comparative Literature and Director of the Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition, Indiana University, Bloomington; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Jenny Holzer Artist; writer Gloria Hom Educator and consultant; former professor of economics, Mission College; former trustee, California State University Garrett Hongo Writer; Distinguished Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oregon Laurence Horn Author; Professor of Linguistics and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Yale University Jennifer James Cultural anthropologist; writer Edward P. Jones Author; Professor of English, The George Washington University; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Erica Jong Poet; novelist; essayist Wendy Kaminer Writer Alice Kaplan John M. Musser Professor of French, Yale University Elizabeth T. Kennan President Emerita, Mount Holyoke College Tracy Kidder Writer; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Barbara Kingsolver Writer Maxine Hong Kingston Writer; recipient, National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and PEN Center USA West Award for Fiction Jeremy K.B. Kinsman Columnist; former Canadian Ambassador to the European Union Laura Kipnis Writer; Professor of Radio-TV-Film, Northwestern University Elizabeth Kolbert Journalist; author Ed Koren Cartoonist, The New Yorker Robert Kuttner Coeditor and cofounder, The American Prospect; columnist, The Boston Globe Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education, Harvard University; MacArthur Fellow David Leavitt Writer; Professor of English, University of Florida Jill Lepore Author; Professor of History, Harvard University Wendy Lesser Writer; Editor, The Threepenny Review Lawrence Lessig Professor, Harvard Law School Beth Levin William H. Bonsall Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Linguistics, Stanford University Michael Lewis Author Mark Liberman Professor of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania James Lindgren Professor of Law, Northwestern University Phillip Lopate Writer; Professor and Nonfiction Director, Columbia University School of the Arts Lois Lowry Author Heather Mac Donald Author; John M. Olin Fellow, Manhattan Institute Megan Marshall Biographer; Charles Wesley Emerson College Professor, Emerson College; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Suzanne R. Massie Writer; lecturer on Russian history and culture Armistead Maupin Author Jane Mayer Author Alice E. Mayhew Editorial Director, Simon & Schuster Terrence McNally Playwright; recipient, four Tony Awards John H. McWhorter Linguist; writer; Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute Hassan Minor, Jr. Managing Director, datablack; former Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Howard University Lorrie Moore Writer; Delmore Schwartz Professor in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin–Madison Lance Morrow Author; biographer; essayist, Time Alice Munro Author; recipient, Nobel Prize in Literature Cullen Murphy Editor at Large, Vanity Fair Thomas M.T. Niles President Emeritus, United States Council for International Business Marsha Norman Playwright; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Susan Orlean Author; staff writer, The New Yorker Cynthia Ozick Novelist; essayist Suzan-Lori Parks Writer; MacArthur Fellow; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Margaret Sayers Peden Translator; Professor Emerita of Spanish, University of Missouri Merrill Perlman Editor; language columnist, Columbia Journalism Review Ivars Peterson Director of Publications and Communications, Mathematical Association of America Steven PinkerChair (2008–2018) Johnstone Family Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University Robert Pinsky Poet; translator; former US poet laureate; Professor of English, Boston University Michael Pollan Author; Professor of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley Virginia Postrel Author; columnist, Bloomberg View Alvin F. Poussaint Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Francine Prose Writer Jane Bryant Quinn Journalist; financial columnist Claudia Rankine Poet; playwright; Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry, Yale University; MacArthur Fellow Richard Rhodes Author; recipient, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize; MacArthur Fellow Frank Rich Author; former columnist, The New York Times; writer-at-large, New York magazine John R. Rickford J.E. Wallace Sterling Professor in Linguistics and the Humanities and Pritzker University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, Stanford University Jason L. Riley Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute; columnist, The Wall Street Journal Mary Roach Writer Richard Rodriguez Writer Robert J. Samuelson Columnist, The Washington Post John Sayles Film director; writer; screenwriter; actor Lloyd Schwartz Poet; music critic; Frederick S. Troy Professor of English, University of Massachusetts, Boston; recipient, Pulitzer Prize David Sedaris Writer; humorist Will Shortz Puzzlemaker; crossword editor, The New York Times Elaine Showalter Avalon Foundation Professor of the Humanities, Emerita, Princeton University Leslie Marmon Silko Author John Simon Drama and film critic Mona Simpson Novelist; Professor of English, University of California, Los Angeles David Skinner Editor Anna Deavere Smith Playwright; actress; professor; MacArthur Fellow; recipient, National Endowment for the Humanities Medal Tracy K. Smith Poet; Professor of Creative Writing, Princeton University; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Christina Hoff Sommers Author; resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute A.E. Stallings Poet; poetry program director, Athens Centre; MacArthur Fellow Susan Stamberg Special correspondent, National Public Radio Margaret O’Brien Steinfels Codirector, Center on Religion and Culture, Fordham University; former editor in chief, Commonweal Farah Stockman Reporter, The New York Times; former columnist, The Boston Globe; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Amy Tan Writer Deborah Tannen University Professor and Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University Shane Templeton Foundation Professor of Literacy Studies, University of Nevada, Reno Paul Theroux Novelist; travel writer Elizabeth Marshall Thomas Writer Peter Tiersma Professor of Law and Hon. William Matthew Byrne, Jr. Chair, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles Elizabeth C. Traugott Professor Emerita of Linguistics and English, Stanford University Calvin Trillin Staff writer, The New Yorker Mark Turner Institute Professor and Professor of Cognitive Science, Case Western Reserve University Anne Tyler Novelist; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Helen H. Vendler Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor, Harvard University Paula Vogel Eugene O'Neill Professor (Adjunct) and Chair of Playwrighting, Yale School of Drama; recipient, Pulitzer Prize William T. Vollmann Author Eugene Volokh Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles Barbara Wallraff Author; editor Fay Weldon Writer; Professor of Creative Writing, Brunel University Colson Whitehead Writer; MacArthur Fellow; recipient, Pulitzer Prize Tobias Wolff Writer; Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor of English, Stanford University Richard A. Young Writer; editor; lecturer; publisher; engineer; Executive Director, National Registry of Environmental ProfessionalsWe regret that the following members of the Usage Panel, who participated in the program for this edition, have died. Louis Auchincloss, Sheridan Baker, Letitia Baldrige, Jacques Barzun, Daniel Bell, Kallia H. Bokser, Julian Bond, William F. Buckley, Jr., Gabrielle Burton, Claire Kehrwald Cook, Robert W. Creamer, Frank Deford, William K. Durr, Howard Fast, John Kenneth Galbraith, Mark O. Hatfield, Molly Ivins, Alfred E. Kahn, Justin Kaplan, Stanley Kauffmann, Galway Kinnell, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Maxine Kumin, Anthony Lewis, Robert Manning, Leonard Michaels, Bharati Mukherjee, Edwin Newman, Geoffrey Nunberg, Ellen F. Prince, William James Raspberry, Edward W. Rosenheim, Antonin Scalia, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Harvey Shapiro, Carlota S. Smith, Theodore C. Sorensen, Stewart L. Udall, David Foster Wallace, Calvert Watkins, Jacqueline Grennan Wexler, Tom Wicker, Alden S. Wood, William Zinsser Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices: Indo-European Roots Semitic Roots The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. 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