Otis

O1T1I1S1
US/ˈoʊtɪs/UK/ˈəʊtɪs/

proper noun

A surname transferred from the given name, notably of the American revolutionary hero James Otis and the innovator and industrialist Elisha Otis.

Less commonScrabble 4
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

proper noun
  1. A surname transferred from the given name, notably of the American revolutionary hero James Otis and the innovator and industrialist Elisha Otis.
  2. USA male given name from the Germanic languages, transferred from the surname.

    […] in a world of mandatory diminutives, a corporation of jolly Bills and Jacks and Herbs and Teds in which an unabbreviable given name like Earl must have been a minor handicap, "Oat" was the best that could be done for a man with the given name of Otis.

    1961, Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road, Vintage Contemporaries, published 2000, →ISBN, page 74
  3. An Otis elevator.

Origin

A patronymic surname derived from Middle English genitive case of the Germanic given name Ote, Ode, cognate to modern Otto.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with Otis

Phthiotis
All rhymes →

Anagrams

SITOTosiTsoiSOTIisot
Cite this entry
APA

Otis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Otis

MLA

“Otis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Otis. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Otis,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Otis.

Source: Otis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.