use-icon

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

use-icon

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

open-icon

AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP

The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android.

scroll-icon

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.

100-words-icon

See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series!

Find out more!

open-icon

INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?

Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com

steep 1 (stēp)
Share:
adj. steep·er, steep·est
1. Having a sharp inclination; precipitous.
2. At a rapid or precipitous rate: a steep rise in imports.
3.
a. Excessive; stiff: a steep price.
b. Ambitious; difficult: a steep undertaking.
n.
A precipitous slope.

[Middle English stepe, from Old English stēap.]

steeply adv.
steepness n.

Synonyms: steep1, abrupt, precipitous, sheer2
These adjectives mean so sharply inclined as to be almost perpendicular: steep cliffs; an abrupt drop-off; precipitous hills; a sheer descent.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
steep 2 (stēp)
Share:
v. steeped, steep·ing, steeps
v.tr.
1. To immerse in liquid for a period of time, as to cleanse, treat, or extract a given property from: steeped the cloth in red dye; steeped the tea bag in boiling water.
2. To involve or preoccupy thoroughly; immerse: As a child, she steeped herself in adventure stories.
3. To make thoroughly wet; saturate.
v.intr.
To undergo a soaking in liquid: Let the tea steep for five minutes.
n.
1.
a. The act or process of steeping.
b. The state of being steeped.
2. A liquid, bath, or solution in which something is steeped.

[Middle English stepen, perhaps from Old English *stīepan; akin to Swedish stöpa and Danish støbe, to soak (barley for malting), cast (metal), from Germanic *staupjan, probably denominative verb from *staupan, a kind of vessel for liquids (also the source of Old Norse staup, cup; see STOUP).]

steeper n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

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.