A scheme for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance, especially a gaming scheme in which one or more tickets bearing particular numbers draw prizes, the other tickets are blanks.
"After buying her ticket and checking that it wasn't a blank, Sarah realized she had finally won the lottery with those specific numbers."
In plain English: A lottery is a game where people buy tickets for a small chance to win a large amount of money.
"The neighbors are excited because they bought the winning lottery ticket."
Usage: Use "lottery" to describe a game where participants buy numbered tickets with a chance to win prizes based on random draws, such as state-run games or raffles. Do not use it to refer to a large quantity of something unless you are specifically invoking the idiom "a lot of."
The word "lottery" comes from the Italian lotteria, which shares its roots with the Old English word hlot and modern English lot. It entered English through French and Middle Dutch before taking on its current meaning related to games of chance based on random selection.