Lottos

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A game of chance where players choose numbers in hope of winning cash prizes through random drawings
2. An organized lottery in which players select a series of numbers to potentially win large monetary rewards based on draws
3. A type of gambling involving the selection and matching of numbers for the possibility of winning substantial financial bonuses

Etymology: "Lottos" is simply the plural of "lotto," so the history belongs to that base word. "Lotto" was borrowed from Italian, where it means "lot" or "drawing," and it is a doublet of the English "lot," meaning two words that share an ancestor but reached English by different routes. Both trace back to the same idea of a chance selection, so the lottery game and the older word for a drawn object or allotted share are closely related. The Italian form entered English as a name for the numbers-based game that was popular in Italy and spread from there, which is why the word keeps its Italian shape rather than an English one. The plural "lottos" is the ordinary English plural used when speaking of several separate games or draws.

Synonyms: lotteries, games of chance, raffles, sweepstakes, gambling