Hotter

How to spell hotter

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hotter

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hotter mean?

1. adjectiveHaving a higher temperature than something else, or more intense in heat, spice, or feeling.

Hotter in a sentence

• The afternoon was much hotter than the morning had been.

• This curry tastes far hotter than the one we ordered last week.

Where does hotter come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the comparative form of 'hot', which comes from the Old English word hāt, meaning 'warm' or 'fiery'. That word traces back to a Germanic root shared with the Dutch heet and the German heiß, all carrying the same sense of high temperature. To compare degrees of heat, English adds the suffix '-er', a native Germanic ending used for comparatives since the earliest stages of the language. Because 'hot' ends in a single vowel followed by a single consonant, that final 't' is doubled before the ending, giving 'hotter' rather than 'hoter'. The same doubling rule governs relatives like 'bigger', 'wetter', and 'redder', which is the chief thing to remember when spelling it.

How the word is built

• hot (Old English hāt: warm)
• -er (comparative suffix, with the final consonant doubled)