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.
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.
AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP
The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android.
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.
INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?
Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com
n. pl. quar·ries 1. a. A hunted animal; prey. b. Hunted animals considered as a group; game. 2. An object of pursuit: The police lost their quarry in the crowd. [Middle English querre, entrails of a deer given to hounds as a reward, from Old French cuiriee, alteration (influenced by cuir, skin) of coree, from Vulgar Latin *corāta, viscera, from Latin cor, heart; see kerd- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
n. pl. quar·ries 1. An open excavation or pit from which stone is obtained by digging, cutting, or blasting. 2. A rich or productive source: found the book an indispensable quarry of information. tr.v. quar·ried, quar·ry·ing, quar·ries 1. To obtain (stone) from a quarry, as by cutting, digging, or blasting. 2. To extract (facts, for example) by long, careful searching: finally quarried out the genealogy from hundreds of sources. 3. To use (land) as a quarry. [Middle English quarey, from Medieval Latin quareria, quareia, alteration of Old French quarriere, from *quarre, cut stone, from Latin quadrum, square; see kwetwer- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] quarri·er n.  (click for a larger image) quarry2marble quarry near Pucisca, Croatia |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
n. pl. quar·ries 1. A square or diamond shape. 2. A pane of glass having this shape. [Variant of QUARREL2.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
