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bet

Pronunciation: /bɛt/

The English word “bet” has 10 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A wager, an agreement between two parties that a stake (usually money) will be paid by the loser to the winner (the winner being the one who correctly forecast the outcome of an event).
  2. A candidate (for elections and pageants) or competitor (in multinational sports).
  3. Indicating a degree of certainty, or that something can be relied upon.

verb

  1. To stake or pledge upon the outcome of an event; to wager.
  2. To be sure of something; to be able to count on something.
  3. To place money into the pot in order to require others do the same, usually only used for the first person to place money in the pot on each round.

interjection

  1. Expression of general agreement or acceptance.
  2. Exclamation indicating acceptance of a challenge or an absurd proposal.
  3. Exclamation of joy at good fortune.

preposition

  1. between

Etymology

From 16th-century criminal slang, perhaps from Middle English bet (“something better, advantage, luck”), from Old English bet, bett (“better”, adverb); or, alternatively from abet, from Middle English abet, abette, from Old French abet (“incitement to evil”), from Old French abeter (“to entice”), from a- (“to”) + beter (“hound on, urge, to bait”); ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *baitijan…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.