Marked with or consisting of small round spots or points. Can also mean scattered or distributed at intervals.
From Middle English 'dot,' possibly from Old English 'dott' meaning 'head of a boil.' The pattern sense developed from the visual similarity of small marks to tiny raised spots.
The dotted line has become a universal symbol for 'cut here' or 'temporary boundary' in documents, but this convention only emerged in the 19th century with mass printing. Before that, actual perforations were used instead of printed dots.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.