English
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian lotteria, from the same root as Old English hlot (cognate with English lot). Compare French loterie (from Middle Dutch loterie). By surface analysis, lot + -ery.
Pronunciation
Noun
lottery (plural lotteries)
- A scheme for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance, especially a gaming scheme in which one or more tickets bearing particular numbers draw prizes, the other tickets are blanks.
Dave plays the lottery almost every week, but always picks different numbers.
- (figuratively) Something decided by chance.
It's a bit of a lottery whether we'll get a good table in that diner.
- (obsolete) Allotment; a thing allotted.
Derived terms
Translations
scheme for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance
- Albanian: lotari (sq) f
- Arabic: يَانَصِيب m (yānaṣīb)
- North Levantine Arabic: لوتو m (lōtō)
- Armenian: վիճակախաղ (hy) (vičakaxaġ)
- Azerbaijani: lotereya (az)
- Belarusian: латарэ́я f (lataréja), лятарэ́я f (ljataréja)
- Bengali: লটারি (bn) (loṭari)
- Bulgarian: лота́рия (bg) f (lotárija)
- Burmese: ထီ (my) (hti)
- Catalan: loteria (ca) f
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 抽獎 / 抽奖 (zh) (chōujiǎng), 抽彩 (zh) (chōucǎi), 樂透 / 乐透 (zh) (lètòu)
- Czech: loterie (cs) f
- Danish: lotteri n
- Dutch: loting (nl), loterij (nl), lottrekking
- Esperanto: loterio
- Estonian: loterii
- Finnish: arpajaiset (fi) pl, arvonta (fi)
- French: loterie (fr) f
- Georgian: ლატარია (laṭaria)
- German: Lotterie (de) f
- Greek: λοταρία (el) f (lotaría)
- Hebrew: לוֹטוֹ (he) m (lotó), הַגְרָלָה (he) f (hagralá)
- Hindi: लॉटरी f (lŏṭrī), लाटरी (hi) f (lāṭrī)
- Hungarian: lottó (hu)
- Icelandic: happdrætti (is) n, lottó (is) n
- Italian: lotteria (it) f
- Japanese: くじ (ja) (kuji), 宝くじ (ja) (たからくじ, takarakuji), 富くじ (ja) (とみくじ, tomikuji)
- Kazakh: лотерея (lotereä)
- Khmer: ឆ្នោត (km) (chnaot)
- Korean: 복권(福券) (ko) (bokgwon)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: ھایبەخت (haybext)
- Kyrgyz: лотерея (ky) (lotereya)
- Lao: ຫວຍ (lo) (hūai)
- Latin: sortītus m, sortītiō f
- Latvian: loterija f
- Lithuanian: loterija f
- Macedonian: лотарија f (lotarija)
- Malay: loteri (ms)
- Malayalam: ഭാഗ്യക്കുറി (ml) (bhāgyakkuṟi), ലോട്ടറി (lōṭṭaṟi)
- Maori: rota
- Marathi: लॉटरी f (lŏṭrī)
- Mongolian:
- Cyrillic: лотерея (mn) (lotereja)
- Norman: lot'tie f
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: lotteri n
- Nynorsk: lotteri n
- Ottoman Turkish: پیانقو (piyanko)
- Pashto: لاترۍ f (lātrᶕy), لاټرۍ f (lāṭrǝy)
- Persian:
- Iranian Persian: بَخْتآزْمایی (baxt-âzmâyi), لاتاری (fa) (lâtâri)
- Polish: loteria (pl) f
- Portuguese: lotaria (pt) f (Portugal), loteria (pt) f (Brazil)
- Romanian: loterie (ro) f, loto (ro) n
- Russian: лотере́я (ru) f (lotɛréja)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: лу̀трија f
- Roman: lùtrija (sh) f
- Slovak: lotéria f
- Slovene: loterija f
- Spanish: lotería (es) f
- Swahili: bahati nasibu (sw)
- Swedish: lotteri (sv) n
- Tagalog: loteriya
- Tajik: лотерея (tg) (lotereya)
- Telugu: లాటరీ (lāṭarī)
- Thai: หวย (th) (hǔai), สลาก (th) (sà-làak), ลอตเตอรี่ (th) (lɔ́t-dtəə-rîi)
- Turkish: piyango (tr)
- Turkmen: lotereýa
- Ukrainian: лотере́я f (loteréja)
- Urdu: لاٹَری f (lāṭarī)
- Uyghur: لاتارىيە (latariye), لاتارى (latari)
- Uzbek: lotereya (uz)
- Vietnamese: xổ số (vi)
- Vilamovian: loteri f
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something decided by chance
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked