Hot

How to spell hot

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce hot

What does hot mean?

1. adjectiveHaving a high temperature; giving off a great deal of heat.
2. adjectiveHaving a strong, pungent flavour from chilli or spice.

Hot in a sentence

• The coffee was still too hot to drink.

• The curry was so hot that her eyes watered.

• The engine grew dangerously hot after the long climb.

• He added extra chilli to make the sauce really hot.

Where does hot come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Hot is a native English word, descending from the Old English 'hat', meaning 'hot' or 'fervent'. That form goes back to a Proto-Germanic root 'haitaz', which is also the ancestor of the modern German 'heiss' and the Dutch 'heet', all carrying the basic sense of high temperature. The long vowel of the Old English 'hat' shortened over the centuries, giving the brisk, single-syllable 'hot' we use today. From early on the word also carried figurative warmth, describing strong feeling or anger, a sense still alive in phrases about a hot temper. Because it is short and phonetic, the spelling is genuinely simple, with no silent letters or doubled consonants to trip anyone up.

How the word is built

• hot (single Old English root; no affixes)