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

ri·fle 1 (rīfəl)
Share:
n.
1.
a. A firearm with a spirally grooved bore, designed to be fired from the shoulder.
b. An artillery piece or naval gun with a spirally grooved bore.
2. rifles Troops armed with rifles.
tr.v. ri·fled, ri·fling, ri·fles
To cut spiral grooves within (a gun barrel, for example).

[Short for rifle gun, rifled gun, from rifle, to cut spiral grooves in, from French rifler, to scratch, from Middle French, from Old French; see RIFLE2.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
ri·fle 2 (rīfəl)
Share:
v. ri·fled, ri·fling, ri·fles
v. tr.
1. To search (an area or container, for example) thoroughly, especially using the hands with the intent to steal or remove something: rifled the desk, looking for the keys.
2. To rob or search with the intent to rob: rifled the travelers of their belongings.
3. To steal (goods).
v. intr.
To search vigorously: rifling through my drawers to find matching socks.

[Middle English riflen, to plunder, from Middle French rifler, from Old French rifler, to scratch, brush up against, from Old High German riffilōn, to scrape, scratch; akin to Old Norse rīfa, to rive.]

rifler 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.