hot
Having a very high temperature or giving off heat.
The word hot has several meanings:
- Having a high temperature. A hot stove can burn your hand, and hot cocoa warms you up on a cold day. When you have a fever, your forehead feels hot to the touch. The opposite of hot is cold.
- Spicy or burning in taste. Hot peppers like jalapeños and habaneros contain chemicals that make your mouth feel like it's on fire. Some people love hot salsa and hot curry, while others prefer milder flavors. When food is too hot for you, drinking milk helps more than water does.
- Fresh or recent, especially when describing news or information. A hot tip is new information that might help you, and a hot topic is something everyone's talking about right now. When someone says something is hot off the press, they mean it's brand new.
The word appears in many expressions: when you're in hot water, you're in trouble. When you're hot on someone's trail, you're close to catching them. And when something becomes unexpectedly popular or successful, people say it's hot.