whit

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old English wiht (“wight, person, creature, being, whit, thing, something, anything”), from Proto-Germanic *wihtą (“thing, creature”) or Proto-Germanic *wihtiz (“essence, object”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“cause, sake, thing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekʷ- (“to say, tell”). Cognate with Old High German wiht (“creature, thing”), Dutch wicht, German Wicht. See also wight.

Pronunciation

• enPR: wĭt, hwĭt, IPA^(key): /wɪt/, /ʍɪt/
• Rhymes: -ɪt
• Homophone: wit (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Noun

whit (plural whits)

1. The smallest part or particle imaginable; an iota.

   He worked tirelessly to collect and wind a ball of string eight feet around, and it matters not one whit.

   • 1602: William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act V scene 2

     Not a whit.

   • 1917, Incident by Countee Cullen

     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.'

Anagrams

• with, with-

Alternative forms

• hwit, white, whyte, whitt, whytt, whyt, whiȝt, qwyght, ȝwijt, wyghte

Etymology

Old English hwīt, from Proto-Germanic *hwītaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʍiːt/

Adjective

whit (comparative whitter, superlative whittest)

1. white, pale, light (in color)
2. (referring to people) wearing white clothes
3. (referring to people) having white skin
4. attractive, fair, beautiful
5. bright, shining, brilliant
6. (referring to plants) having white flowers
7. (heraldry) silver, argent (tincture)
8. (alchemy) Inducing the transmutation of a substance into silver
9. (medicine) Unusually light; bearing the pallor of death

Noun

whit

1. white (colour)
2. white pigment
3. The white of an egg
4. The white of an eye
5. white fabric
6. white wine
7. dairy products
8. Other objects notable for being white

See also

Pronoun

whit

1. what