spot

UK/spɒt/US/spɑt/

verbB15 meanings Very common — you will meet it every day · #637 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: spots, spotted, spotting

To spot something is to catch sight of it — the thing you were hunting for, or the thing that was easy to miss. You spot your friend in a crowd at the station, spot a mistake in the bill, spot a deer standing still at the edge of a field.

The noun does more work than the verb. A spot is a small round mark of a different colour: a spot of ink on a sleeve, the spots on a leopard, a spot of rain on the window. In British English a spot is also a pimple — teenagers get spots. And a spot is a place: a shady spot for a picnic, a parking spot, the spot where it happened. Spot on means exactly right, a spot of lunch is a small amount of it, and to put someone on the spot is to make them answer right now, in front of everyone.

Definitions of spot

1verbspotTo see or notice something, especially something you were looking for or something hard to see.B1~2%
“She spotted him waiting at the far end of the platform.”
synonyms: notice, catch sight of
2noundiffersA small round mark that differs in colour from what is around it.B1~16%
“There was a spot of ink on his shirt cuff.”
3nounredA small red mark on the skin; a pimple.B1~2%
“He woke up with a spot on his chin the day before the photos.”
4nounparticularA particular place.B1~78%
“We found a shady spot by the river and ate there.”
5nounamountA small amount of something, especially food or drink.B2~2%
“Come round at one and we'll have a spot of lunch.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 18 sentences found in the wild and placed 18 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Phrases it lives in

spot on — exactly right, with the warmth of somebody impressed
put someone on the spot — To force someone to answer or decide immediately, when they would rather not.
on the spot — At once, and in the very place where you are.

Where it comes from

Spot is two old words that merged. Middle English spot took part of its life from Middle Dutch spotte, a speck, and part from Old English splott, a spot or a plot of land, which traces back to a root meaning to split. A spot, at bottom, is a piece split off from what surrounds it — which is why the same word covers a mark on a shirt and a patch of ground.

Old English
splott
Middle English
spot
English, today
spot

From Middle English spot, from Old English splott. From Middle English spot, spotte, partially from Middle Dutch spotte (“spot, speck”), and partially merging with Middle English splot, from Old English splott (“spot, plot of land”), from Proto-West Germanic splott, from Proto-Germanic spluttaz (“segment”), from Proto-Indo-European splt-no- (“an off-split, segment”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)pel- (“to split”). Cognate with frr spot (“speck, piece of ground”), Low German spot (“speck”), Old Norse spotti (“small piece”). See also splot, splotch.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Ways of Looking, Hair & Grooming

Practise this word

spot in the wild

The shot is taken from the penalty spot, which is 12 yards from the goal line, and centered between the touch lines.
Penalty kick (association football)
White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is the lone virus of the genus Whispovirus (white spot), which is the only genus in the family Nimaviridae.
White spot syndrome
Small white spots known as Koplik spots may form inside the mouth two or three days after the start of symptoms.
Measles
Alopecia areata (AA), also known as spot baldness, is a condition in which hair is lost from some or all areas of the body.
Alopecia areata
Former president and CEO Katsuaki Watanabe replaced him as the new vice chairman of the company and Watanabe's spot being replaced by Akio Toyoda.
Katsuhiro Nakagawa

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

Definitions of spot

1verbspotTo see or notice something, especially something you were looking for or something hard to see.B1~2%

“She spotted him waiting at the far end of the platform.”

synonyms: notice, catch sight of

2noundiffersA small round mark that differs in colour from what is around it.B1~16%

“There was a spot of ink on his shirt cuff.”

3nounredA small red mark on the skin; a pimple.B1~2%

“He woke up with a spot on his chin the day before the photos.”

4nounparticularA particular place.B1~78%

“We found a shady spot by the river and ate there.”

5nounamountA small amount of something, especially food or drink.B2~2%

“Come round at one and we'll have a spot of lunch.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 18 sentences found in the wild and placed 18 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.