hot

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adjective

ˈhät

hotter; hottest

Synonyms of hot next

: having a relatively high temperature

hot and humid weather

serving hot meals to the poor

: capable of giving a sensation of heat or of burning, searing, or scalding

working outside in the hot sun

fried in hot oil

: having heat in a degree exceeding normal body heat

Your forehead feels hot.

: marked by violence or fierceness : stormy

a hot temper

a hot battle

also : angry

got hot about the remark

b(1)

: sexually excited or receptive

It's obvious he's hot for her.

(2)

: sexy

That guy she's dating is really hot.

: eager, zealous

hot for reform

of jazz : emotionally exciting and marked by strong rhythms and free melodic improvisations

: having or causing the sensation of an uncomfortable degree of body heat

hot and tired

it's hot in here

: newly made : fresh

a hot scent

bread hot from the oven

hot off the press

: close to something sought

hot on the trail

: suggestive of heat or of burning or glowing objects : very bright

hot colors

hot pink

of food : having a component (such as capsaicin) that creates a burning or tingling sensation in the mouth : pungent, peppery

hot mustard

the hottest chili I've ever tasted

adverb

: hotly

the sun shines hot—

William Shakespeare

: fast, quickly

hot

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noun

: a period of relatively high temperature : a period of heat

during the hot of the day

: one that is hot (such as a hot meal or a horse just after a workout)

hots plural : strong sexual desire

—used with the

has got the hots for the new guy in the office

hot

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verb

hotted; hotting; hots

transitive verb

chiefly Southern US, south Midland US, and British

: heat, warm

He took her up her supper, saying, "I've hotted the soup, and I found the chicken."—

Mrs. Henry Dudeney (Alice Louisa Dudenay)

—usually used with up

hotted up the kettle… he was sitting by the fire hotting up some of his cider in a saucepan; this he was taking with rosemary to cure his cold.—

Fred Archer

Example Sentences

Adjective It is hot in the summer and cold in the winter. The baked potatoes were too hot to handle with our bare hands. We worked all afternoon in the hot sun. The chicken was fried in hot oil. Your forehead feels hot. I think you might have a fever. I was feeling hot and tired. a selection of hot beverages The new toys are so hot that stores can't keep them in stock. Her new book is a hot seller. She spoke about the latest hot trends in the computer industry. Adverb workers were working hot and heavy to repair the breach in the levee See More

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

The tiered skirt is light and airy for hot outdoor ceremonies, and the crochet bodice adds a beachy touch. —

Halie Lesavage, harpersbazaar.com, 18 May 2023 Each pair's straps and colorways then give them a Chloé touch: the Hurricane XLT2 is wrapped in cream straps reminiscent of Chloé's popular Woody tote bag, while both versions of the Ampsole (one neutral, one hot pink) reference Hearst's long-time inspiration with their Bahia Band straps. —

Halie Lesavage, Harper's BAZAAR, 17 May 2023 Order a box for your whole party, and try flavors like Nashville hot chicken, chicken and waffles, and shrimp mac and cheese. —

Katie Mcinerney, BostonGlobe.com, 17 May 2023 In diner settings — at Canter’s Deli, Nate n’ Al’s, and Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant, where eating hot pastrami has been likened to entering the gates of heaven — booths hold up as a neighborhood hub for sneakerheads, Rodeo Drive dwellers and MacArthur Park goers to slump into all the same. —

Erika Houle, Los Angeles Times, 17 May 2023 Police walked in on that hot summer day in 1962 and saw a racing legend slumped over in his bedroom with two bullet wounds to the chest. —

The Indianapolis Star, 17 May 2023 There are 84 windows to harvest cross-breezes and a sleeping porch to ensure survival during hot summers without air conditioning. —

Katharine Jose, Chron, 14 May 2023 Simply pop them in the microwave for a few minutes for a hot meal. —

Elizabeth Bacharach, Women's Health, 12 May 2023 This summer's hottest club (*in Saturday Night Live Stefon voice*) is... the movie theater! —

Nick Romano, EW.com, 12 May 2023

Adverb

Missouri came out hot in the third quarter, quickly taking a lead. —

Arkansas Online, 3 Mar. 2023 In 2019 Bodin Danielsson and Töres Theorell of Stockholm University studied hot-desking offices that skimped on breakout rooms or otherwise didn't have enough space for everyone to find a work space to their liking, and employees were unhappier with this office type. —

George Musser, Scientific American, 14 Mar. 2023 Rocket Lab has already hot-fired a Rutherford engine recovered from an Electron flight. —

Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 31 Mar. 2023 But there are also those who love being toyed with, and hot-potatoing a narrative back and forth in our hands without needing concrete A-to-B answers — who appreciate a horror vibe. —

David Fear, Rolling Stone, 30 Mar. 2023 The Brewers arrived in San Diego already missing the services of shortstop Willy Adames (ankle), right-handed starter Freddy Peralta (shoulder) then lost hot-hitting outfielder Hunter Renfroe to a strained hamstring during the series opener Monday night. —

Andrew Wagner, Forbes, 27 May 2022 Dixon’s preferred recipe starts with flaking kippered, or hot-smoked, salmon into a bowl. —

Teresa Nowakowski, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Mar. 2023 The 15 first-half points off additional chances helped Toronto keep pace with hot-shooting Milwaukee in the first half, trailing 58-56. —

Jim Owczarski, Journal Sentinel, 19 Mar. 2023 Watch Now The Heat The Heat | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX Watch on Chaos arises when arrogant FBI agent Sarah has to work with a hot-headed detective Shannon to take down one of the most powerful drug lords in Boston. —

Tori Polizzotto, ELLE, 28 Feb. 2023

Noun

Running an iron hot makes things easier to solder, but also runs the risk of melting components. —

Matt Crisara, Popular Mechanics, 4 Apr. 2023 Baseball is a game of highs and lows, hots and colds, peaks and valleys. —

Nathan Ruiz, Baltimore Sun, 22 Mar. 2023 Like, smoldering, earth-torching hot. —

Lars Brandle, Billboard, 14 Mar. 2023 Kept the cold cold and the hot hot. —

Katie Jackson, Travel + Leisure, 4 Mar. 2023 As in primal, animal-energy hot. —

Amy Eisinger, M.a., SELF, 10 Feb. 2023 With this hot of a start, and this condensed of a season, nothing is off the table for Colorado. —

Kyle Newman, The Denver Post, 4 Aug. 2020 Now the consequences are being felt: a three-month-long flood in the Florida Keys, wildfires across a record hot and dry Australia, deadly heat waves in Europe. —

Somini Sengupta, New York Times, 12 Mar. 2020 Pwell had 12 points, seven rebounds and three blocked s hots, and Laquaria Mays had 12 points – all on 3-pointers – to go with three assists and three steals. —

Josh Bean | Jbean@al.com, al, 18 Feb. 2020

Verb

So, she hot glued them to a piece of twine and strung it across the ceiling. —

Hadley Keller, House Beautiful, 24 Dec. 2019 The holding company – which traces its roots to hot the ’90s Web firm CMGI — consists of two units today, one in supply chain management and the other in direct marketing. —

BostonGlobe.com, 17 Dec. 2019 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hot.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Adjective

Middle English hot, hoot, (northern) hat, going back to Old English hāt, going back to Germanic *haita- (whence also Old Frisian & Old Saxon hēt "having a high temperature, burning," Old High German heiz, Old Norse heitr), of uncertain origin

Note: For Germanic verb and noun derivatives of *haita- see heat entry 1, heat entry 2. The Early Modern English shortening of Middle English long open o in hot has been explained as influence of the comparative and superlative forms, but this does not appear to have occurred in analogous cases. The Germanic adjective *haita-, from a presumed pre-Germanic *koid-, is reflected in other ablaut variants, as Gothic heito "fever," from *hītōn- (from *keid-) and a zero grade in Old Frisian hette, hitte "heat," Old High German hizzea, hizza (from *kid-); all these may reflect an unattested strong verb *hītan-. Traditionally the base *keid- has been connected by means of a "root extension" *-d- with Old High German hei, gehei, geheige "heat, drought," Middle Dutch hei "hot, dry," from a presumed Indo-European verb base *kei- "burn, heat" (in earlier literature *kai-, though there appears to be no reason to posit such a vocalism). These forms have in turn been compared with a series of Baltic words (as Lithuanian kaičiù, kaĩsti "to heat," kaistù, kaĩsti "to become hot"), from *koit- with a different root extension -t-.

Adverb

Middle English hot, hote, hoote, going back to Old English hāte, derivative of hāt hot entry 1

Noun

derivative of hot entry 1

Note: Frequently nominalized as a pair with cold entry 1 (the nominal equivalent of which is identical with the adjective), a connection that goes back to Old English ("hat and ceald").

Verb

Middle English hoten, going back to Old English hātian, gehātian, derivative of hāt hot entry 1

First Known Use

Adjective

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Adverb

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

12th century, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler