: 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
Legal battle comes to a head The school district sued the state in federal court in September 2023 in an attempt to keep the chief as its mascot, embarking on a subsequent legal battle that came to a head last month, with a judge dismissing the case.
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Polo Sandoval, CNN Money, 26 Apr. 2025
Education Secretary Linda McMahon launched a probe into New York State’s Education Department (NYSED) and the state Board of Regents for threatening to pull funding from the Massapequa School District over its refusal to end its use of a Native American mascot.
—Ashleigh Fields, The Hill, 26 Apr. 2025
Purdue University's Boilermaker Special mascot involved in deadly collision
The driver of the city dump truck, 66-year-old Michael Ray Vernon of Eden, was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries, state highway patrol said.
—Victoria Arancio, ABC News, 25 Apr. 2025
The Mets celebrated more than just their mascot’s birthday Saturday afternoon at Citi Field.
—Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News, 19 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mascot
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Polo Sandoval, CNN Money, 26 Apr. 2025
Education Secretary Linda McMahon launched a probe into New York State’s Education Department (NYSED) and the state Board of Regents for threatening to pull funding from the Massapequa School District over its refusal to end its use of a Native American mascot.
—Ashleigh Fields, The Hill, 26 Apr. 2025
Purdue University's Boilermaker Special mascot involved in deadly collision
The driver of the city dump truck, 66-year-old Michael Ray Vernon of Eden, was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries, state highway patrol said.
—Victoria Arancio, ABC News, 25 Apr. 2025
The Mets celebrated more than just their mascot’s birthday Saturday afternoon at Citi Field.
—Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News, 19 Apr. 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 1 May. 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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