lottery

lottery
lottery lot‧te‧ry [ˈlɒtəri ǁ ˈlɑː-] noun lotteries PLURALFORM
1. [countable] a game of chance in which people buy tickets with numbers on and some people win prizes. Lotteries are often used to raise money for the government or for a charity:

• The national lottery generates substantial additional funds for charities and other good causes.

• a lottery winner

2. [singular] when what happens depends on chance or luck:

• The stock market is too much of a lottery.

* * *

lottery UK US /ˈlɒtəri/ noun (plural lotteries)
► [C] a game of chance, often organized by the government to raise money, in which people win cash if they have bought a winning ticket: »

The council applied for a £40m grant from the national lottery to redevelop local facilities.

 lottery ticket/jackpot/winner »

Last night's national lottery jackpot of €2.8m was won by two lucky ticket-holders.

 lottery funding/money/revenue »

The state is expected to have $15.6 billion in general fund and lottery revenues for the two-year budget period.

► [S] something that is affected by luck rather than being controlled by a fair process: »

With interest rates rising, some people feel that the property market is a bit of a lottery at the moment.


Financial and business terms. 2012.

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Look at other dictionaries:

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  • Lottery — • A lottery is one of the aleatory contracts and is commonly defined as a distribution of prizes by lot or by chance Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Lottery     Lottery      …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • lottery — noun allotment by chance, bet, chance, draw, drawing, gamble, game of chance, lot, raffle, sors, sortitio, sweepstake, wager Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 lottery …   Law dictionary

  • lottery — [lät′ər ē] n. pl. lotteries [MFr loterie < MDu loterije < lot, LOT] 1. a game of chance in which people buy numbered tickets, and prizes are given to those whose numbers are drawn by lot: sometimes sponsored by a state or organization as a… …   English World dictionary

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  • lottery — paradox …   Philosophy dictionary

  • lottery — 1560s, arrangement for a distribution of prizes by chance, from It. lotteria, from lotto lot, portion, share, from same root as O.E. hlot (see LOT (Cf. lot)). Cf. M.Fr. loterie, from M.Du. loterje, from lot (n.) …   Etymology dictionary

  • lottery — [n] drawing chance, door prize, gambling, game of chance, Lotto, luck of the draw, numbers game, raffle, sweepstake; concepts 28,363 …   New thesaurus

  • lottery — ► NOUN (pl. lotteries) 1) a means of raising money by selling numbered tickets and giving prizes to the holders of numbers drawn at random. 2) something whose success is governed by chance. ORIGIN probably from Dutch loterij, from lot lot …   English terms dictionary

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