shot
adjective · verb · noun
Form of shoot , past tense and past participle of shoot.
Simple meaning
Discharged, cleared, or rid of something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
shahtIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈʃɑt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Discharged, cleared, or rid of something.
Tired, weary.
colloquial
Worn out or broken.
verb
past tense and past participle of shoot
To launch (forcefully project) a projectile.
past tense and past participle of shoot
Fire a shot
transitive
To load (a gun) with shot.
noun
The result of launching a projectile or bullet.
uncountable
Small metal balls, or other hard objects of various shapes, used as ammunition, especially in shotgun shells or artillery shells.
A person who shoots (usually with respect to their ability to shoot)
Someone who shoots (a gun, longbow, etc.); a person reckoned as to their aim.
A measure of alcohol, usually spirits, as taken either from a shot-glass or directly from the bottle, equivalent to about 44 milliliters or 1.5 ounces. ("pony shot"= 30 milliliters; 1 fluid ounce)
A remark or comment, especially one which is critical or insulting.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To launch (forcefully project) a projectile.
Used this way, shot is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use shot
- “The shot buzzed past his ear.”noun
- “He trained at putting the shot.”noun
- “He poured a shot of whiskey.”noun
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An alloy that is 98% lead and 2% arsenic.
An athletic competition in which a heavy metal ball is hurled as far as possible.
An athlete who competes in the shot put.
Tower of a kind once used to make shot.
A small glass adequate to hold a single swallow of whiskey.
Drill hole for a charge of an explosive.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Firearm that is a double-barreled smoothbore shoulder weapon for firing shot at short ranges.
A shell containing lead shot.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.