Shot

How to spell shot

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce shot

What does shot mean?

1. nounThe act of firing a weapon, or an attempt to score, hit, or achieve something.
2. nounA single photograph or a continuous piece of film footage.
3. nounAn injection of a vaccine or medicine, or a small measure of spirits.
4. verbThe past tense and past participle of shoot.

Shot in a sentence

• noun

  The hunter fired a single shot at the distant target.

• noun

  The photographer captured a stunning shot of the harbour at dawn.

• noun

  The nurse gave him a flu shot before winter set in.

• verb

  The prices shot up sharply after the announcement.

• noun

  She took a shot at the goal in the final minute.

• noun

  The director needed one more shot before the light faded.

Where does shot come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The noun comes from Old English sceot or gesceot, meaning a shooting, a missile, or the act of letting fly, and it traces back to the same Germanic root that gave us the verb 'shoot' (Old English sceotan, 'to dart, fling, or send a projectile flying'). The very oldest senses concerned arrows and other things hurled or fired, and from that physical idea of launching something the word branched out in every direction: a 'shot' of a gun, a 'shot' at a target, and even a 'shot' of liquor poured out. The word is closely related to 'sheet' (something shot or spread out) and to 'scot' as in 'scot-free', where 'scot' once meant a payment or tax that was shot into a common pot. Because the spelling simply reflects the short, blunt sound, it has stayed remarkably stable for over a thousand years. The single 't' and single 'o' make it one of those rare common words with no real spelling trap beyond resisting the urge to add a letter.

How the word is built

• shot (past participle of shoot; from Old English sceot, a shooting or missile)