"whit" meaning in English

See whit in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /wɪt/, /ʍɪt/ Forms: whits [plural]
enPR: wĭt, hwĭt Rhymes: -ɪt Etymology: From Middle English wiȝt, wight, from Old English wiht (“wight, person, creature, being, whit, thing, something, anything”), from Proto-Germanic *wihtą (“thing, creature”) or *wihtiz (“essence, object”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“cause, sake, thing”), from *wekʷ- (“to say, tell”). Cognate with Old High German wiht (“creature, thing”), Dutch wicht, German Wicht. Doublet of wight. Etymology templates: {{inh|en|enm|wiȝt}} Middle English wiȝt, {{inh|en|ang|wiht|t=wight, person, creature, being, whit, thing, something, anything}} Old English wiht (“wight, person, creature, being, whit, thing, something, anything”), {{inh|en|gem-pro|*wihtą|t=thing, creature}} Proto-Germanic *wihtą (“thing, creature”), {{der|en|ine-pro|*wekti-|t=cause, sake, thing}} Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“cause, sake, thing”), {{cog|goh|wiht|t=creature, thing}} Old High German wiht (“creature, thing”), {{cog|nl|wicht}} Dutch wicht, {{cog|de|Wicht}} German Wicht, {{doublet|en|wight}} Doublet of wight Head templates: {{en-noun}} whit (plural whits)
  1. The smallest part or particle imaginable; an iota. Synonyms: bit, iota, jot, scrap, modicum Derived forms: care a whit Translations (smallest part imaginable): незначително количество (neznačitelno količestvo) (Bulgarian), капчица (kapčica) [feminine] (Bulgarian), drobet [masculine] (Czech), špetka [feminine] (Czech), troška [feminine] (Czech), zblo [neuter] (Czech), rahtunen (Finnish), hitunen (Finnish), hiukkanen (Finnish), once [feminine] (French), iotă [feminine] (Romanian), йо́та (jóta) [feminine] (Russian), ка́пелька (kápelʹka) [feminine] (Russian), чу́точка (čútočka) [feminine] (Russian)
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 1

Preposition

Head templates: {{head|en|prepositions|head=}} whit, {{en-preposition}} whit
  1. Pronunciation spelling of with. Tags: alt-of, pronunciation-spelling Alternative form of: with
    Sense id: en-whit-en-prep-YBOtKyb~ Categories (other): English pronunciation spellings, English entries with incorrect language header, English prepositions Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 17 83 Disambiguation of English prepositions: 36 64
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 2

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "wiȝt"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English wiȝt",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "wiht",
        "t": "wight, person, creature, being, whit, thing, something, anything"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English wiht (“wight, person, creature, being, whit, thing, something, anything”)",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gem-pro",
        "3": "*wihtą",
        "t": "thing, creature"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Germanic *wihtą (“thing, creature”)",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ine-pro",
        "3": "*wekti-",
        "t": "cause, sake, thing"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“cause, sake, thing”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "goh",
        "2": "wiht",
        "t": "creature, thing"
      },
      "expansion": "Old High German wiht (“creature, thing”)",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "nl",
        "2": "wicht"
      },
      "expansion": "Dutch wicht",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "Wicht"
      },
      "expansion": "German Wicht",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "wight"
      },
      "expansion": "Doublet of wight",
      "name": "doublet"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English wiȝt, wight, from Old English wiht (“wight, person, creature, being, whit, thing, something, anything”), from Proto-Germanic *wihtą (“thing, creature”) or *wihtiz (“essence, object”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“cause, sake, thing”), from *wekʷ- (“to say, tell”). Cognate with Old High German wiht (“creature, thing”), Dutch wicht, German Wicht. Doublet of wight.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "whits",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "whit (plural whits)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Czech translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Romanian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "care a whit"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 151:",
          "text": "Star. I beleeue we muſt leaue the killing out, when all is done.\nBot. Not a whit: I haue a deuice to make all well.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1890 December 9, Thomas H. Huxley, “Letter to the \"Times\" on the \"Darkest England Scheme\"”, in Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays:",
          "text": "Sadly behind the great age of rowdy self-advertisement in which their lot has fallen, they seem not to have advanced one whit beyond John the Baptist and the Apostles, 1800 years ago, in their notions of the way in which the metanoia, the change of mind of the ill-doer, is to be brought about.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1917, Countee Cullen, Incident:",
          "text": "Now I was eight and very small, / And he was no whit bigger / And so I smiled, but he poked out / His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1944 July and August, “London Railway Stations in 1893”, in Railway Magazine, page 201, taken from The English Illustrated Magazine of June 1893:",
          "text": "In conclusion, I would remark that the great railway stations of London deserve to be visited every whit as much as St. Paul's Cathedral, the Abbey, or the Tower, and they are as worthy a memento of this century as those buildings are of the days that are gone.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The smallest part or particle imaginable; an iota."
      ],
      "id": "en-whit-en-noun-kU6RRFwm",
      "links": [
        [
          "part",
          "part"
        ],
        [
          "particle",
          "particle"
        ],
        [
          "iota",
          "iota"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "bit"
        },
        {
          "word": "iota"
        },
        {
          "word": "jot"
        },
        {
          "word": "scrap"
        },
        {
          "word": "modicum"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "neznačitelno količestvo",
          "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
          "word": "незначително количество"
        },
        {
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "kapčica",
          "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "капчица"
        },
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "drobet"
        },
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "špetka"
        },
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "troška"
        },
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "zblo"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
          "word": "rahtunen"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
          "word": "hitunen"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
          "word": "hiukkanen"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "once"
        },
        {
          "code": "ro",
          "lang": "Romanian",
          "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "iotă"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "jóta",
          "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "йо́та"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "kápelʹka",
          "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "ка́пелька"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "čútočka",
          "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "чу́точка"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "wĭt"
    },
    {
      "enpr": "hwĭt"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/wɪt/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ʍɪt/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɪt"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "wit (wine–whine merger)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "whit"
}

{
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositions",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "whit",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "whit",
      "name": "en-preposition"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "with"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English pronunciation spellings",
          "parents": [
            "Pronunciation spellings",
            "Terms by orthographic property",
            "Terms by lexical property"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "17 83",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "36 64",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English prepositions",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Pronunciation spelling of with."
      ],
      "id": "en-whit-en-prep-YBOtKyb~",
      "links": [
        [
          "Pronunciation spelling",
          "pronunciation spelling"
        ],
        [
          "with",
          "with#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "pronunciation-spelling"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "whit"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English doublets",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English prepositions",
    "English terms derived from Middle English",
    "English terms derived from Old English",
    "English terms derived from Proto-Germanic",
    "English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European",
    "English terms inherited from Middle English",
    "English terms inherited from Old English",
    "English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic",
    "English terms with homophones",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 4 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/ɪt",
    "Rhymes:English/ɪt/1 syllable",
    "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
    "Terms with Czech translations",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with French translations",
    "Terms with Romanian translations",
    "Terms with Russian translations"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "care a whit"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "wiȝt"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English wiȝt",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "wiht",
        "t": "wight, person, creature, being, whit, thing, something, anything"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English wiht (“wight, person, creature, being, whit, thing, something, anything”)",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gem-pro",
        "3": "*wihtą",
        "t": "thing, creature"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Germanic *wihtą (“thing, creature”)",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ine-pro",
        "3": "*wekti-",
        "t": "cause, sake, thing"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“cause, sake, thing”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "goh",
        "2": "wiht",
        "t": "creature, thing"
      },
      "expansion": "Old High German wiht (“creature, thing”)",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "nl",
        "2": "wicht"
      },
      "expansion": "Dutch wicht",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "Wicht"
      },
      "expansion": "German Wicht",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "wight"
      },
      "expansion": "Doublet of wight",
      "name": "doublet"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English wiȝt, wight, from Old English wiht (“wight, person, creature, being, whit, thing, something, anything”), from Proto-Germanic *wihtą (“thing, creature”) or *wihtiz (“essence, object”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“cause, sake, thing”), from *wekʷ- (“to say, tell”). Cognate with Old High German wiht (“creature, thing”), Dutch wicht, German Wicht. Doublet of wight.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "whits",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "whit (plural whits)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 151:",
          "text": "Star. I beleeue we muſt leaue the killing out, when all is done.\nBot. Not a whit: I haue a deuice to make all well.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1890 December 9, Thomas H. Huxley, “Letter to the \"Times\" on the \"Darkest England Scheme\"”, in Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays:",
          "text": "Sadly behind the great age of rowdy self-advertisement in which their lot has fallen, they seem not to have advanced one whit beyond John the Baptist and the Apostles, 1800 years ago, in their notions of the way in which the metanoia, the change of mind of the ill-doer, is to be brought about.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1917, Countee Cullen, Incident:",
          "text": "Now I was eight and very small, / And he was no whit bigger / And so I smiled, but he poked out / His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1944 July and August, “London Railway Stations in 1893”, in Railway Magazine, page 201, taken from The English Illustrated Magazine of June 1893:",
          "text": "In conclusion, I would remark that the great railway stations of London deserve to be visited every whit as much as St. Paul's Cathedral, the Abbey, or the Tower, and they are as worthy a memento of this century as those buildings are of the days that are gone.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The smallest part or particle imaginable; an iota."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "part",
          "part"
        ],
        [
          "particle",
          "particle"
        ],
        [
          "iota",
          "iota"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "bit"
        },
        {
          "word": "iota"
        },
        {
          "word": "jot"
        },
        {
          "word": "scrap"
        },
        {
          "word": "modicum"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "wĭt"
    },
    {
      "enpr": "hwĭt"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/wɪt/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ʍɪt/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɪt"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "wit (wine–whine merger)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "neznačitelno količestvo",
      "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
      "word": "незначително количество"
    },
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "kapčica",
      "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "капчица"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "drobet"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "špetka"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "troška"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "zblo"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
      "word": "rahtunen"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
      "word": "hitunen"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
      "word": "hiukkanen"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "once"
    },
    {
      "code": "ro",
      "lang": "Romanian",
      "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "iotă"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "jóta",
      "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "йо́та"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "kápelʹka",
      "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "ка́пелька"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "čútočka",
      "sense": "smallest part imaginable",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "чу́точка"
    }
  ],
  "word": "whit"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English prepositions",
    "Pages with 4 entries",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositions",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "whit",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "whit",
      "name": "en-preposition"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "with"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English pronunciation spellings"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Pronunciation spelling of with."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Pronunciation spelling",
          "pronunciation spelling"
        ],
        [
          "with",
          "with#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "pronunciation-spelling"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "whit"
}

Download raw JSONL data for whit meaning in English (7.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (c15a5ce and 5c11237). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.