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

Col·lins 1 (kŏlĭnz), Michael 1890-1922.
Share:
Irish nationalist and Sinn Fein leader who served as Director of Intelligence for the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence and was one of the Irish delegates who negotiated the treaty with Britain that led to the Irish Free State (1922). He was assassinated during the Irish Civil War in an ambush by antitreaty forces.
(click for a larger image)
Michael Collins1

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Col·lins 2 (kŏlĭnz), Michael Born 1930.
Share:
American astronaut who as a crew member of Apollo 11 piloted the spacecraft during its historic mission to the moon (1969). He orbited the moon alone while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made the first manned lunar landing.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Collins, William 1721-1759.
Share:
British writer whose lyric poems such as "Ode to Evening" laid the stylistic and thematic groundwork for Romanticism.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Collins, (William) Wilkie 1824-1889.
Share:
British writer noted for his pioneering mystery novels, including The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Collins, William J. Known as "Billy." Born 1941.
Share:
American poet whose poems have appeared in collections such as Questions About Angels (1991) and The Art of Drowning (1995) and who served as US poet laureate (2001-2003).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
col·lins (kŏlənz)
Share:
n.
A tall iced drink made with liquor, such as gin, carbonated water, sugar, and lemon or lime juice.

[Probably from the name Collins.]

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.