: a person, animal, or object adopted by a group as a symbolic figure especially to bring them good luck
the team had a mountain lion as their mascot
Examples of mascot in a Sentence
The team had a mountain lion as their mascot.
she wears a mascot made of ebony and silver on a chain around her neck
Recent Examples on the Web
To find a solution, the district and the architects also explored expanding the MUR in the other direction, however, that would require the demotion of the outdoor amphitheater (with its dragon mascot mural) with no room on campus for a relocation.
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Karen Billing, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Sep. 2025
The new Buffs mascot opened her CU tenure by exploding out of the gate — and with the kind of gait that would make Rodney Stewart proud.
—Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 21 Sep. 2025
Another, draped in buttery yellow fabric, matched the chain’s canine mascot, Cane III, who was supposed to walk in the show before falling sick.
—Sam Stone, Bon Appetit Magazine, 19 Sep. 2025
Having returned home before the upcoming draft picks, Cade is throwing the ball around on his old high school field after hours when he’s attacked by a mysterious stranger in a mascot outfit.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 19 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mascot
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Karen Billing, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Sep. 2025
The new Buffs mascot opened her CU tenure by exploding out of the gate — and with the kind of gait that would make Rodney Stewart proud.
—Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 21 Sep. 2025
Another, draped in buttery yellow fabric, matched the chain’s canine mascot, Cane III, who was supposed to walk in the show before falling sick.
—Sam Stone, Bon Appetit Magazine, 19 Sep. 2025
Having returned home before the upcoming draft picks, Cade is throwing the ball around on his old high school field after hours when he’s attacked by a mysterious stranger in a mascot outfit.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 19 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mascot
Cite this Entry
“Mascot.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mascot. Accessed 23 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
mascot
noun
mas·cot
ˈmas-ˌkät 
also -kət
: a person, animal, or object supposed to bring good luck
Etymology
from French mascotte "mascot," from a Romance word mascoto "charm," literally "little witch," from masco "witch," from Latin masca "witch"
Word Origin
The word mascot is an example of words that come to have a more pleasant meaning as they develop through the years and through many languages. The ancestor of mascot is the Latin word masca, used in the Middle Ages to mean "witch." Masca passed into the Romance speech of southern France as masco. Later it developed a derivative mascoto, literally meaning "little witch" but actually used to mean "charm" or "magic spell." A magic spell can be used for good as well as bad. Already, then, we have the beginnings of a change to a nicer idea in the basic use of the word. The word mascoto came to be mascotte in modern French, meaning a "good luck charm." It was made popular by the operetta La Mascotte in 1880. In this operetta "la mascotte" is the lovely young woman Bettina, whose influence brings victories to the army of the prince of Pisa. English later borrowed the word as mascot, with the meaning "a person or thing thought to bring good luck." Today the word is often used to refer to an animal chosen by a school or college as a good luck symbol for its sports teams.
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