Word.ws English Dictionary

fit

/fɪt/

fit adjective: suitable; proper. Also the simple past and past participle of fight.

Adjective

fit (comparative fitter, superlative fittest)

  1. Suitable; proper
    • You have nothing to say about it. I'll do exactly as I see fit.
    • Is it fit to say a king, Thou art wicked?1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 34:18
  2. Adapted to a purpose or environment.
    • survival of the fittest
    • That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  3. In good shape; physically well.
    • You don't have to be a good climber for Kilimanjaro, but you do have to be fit.
    • Even the fittest among us may have problems, because hypertension can be genetic or stem from kidney problems or sleep apnea, and the risk typically increases with age.2026, Ginny Graves, “The Most Important Health Metric You're Not Tracking”, in Men's Health, volume 41, number 2, page 19
  4. (UK, informal, slang) Sexually attractive; good-looking; fanciable.
    • I think the girl working in the office is fit.
    • Got my hands down her jeans and I nearly lost half my arm / But after ten pints, she looked quite fit1985, “Sweaty Betty”, in Beer & Sex & Chips n Gravy, performed by Macc Lads
  5. (obsolete) Prepared; ready.
    • So fit to shoot, she singled forth among her foes who first her quarry's strength should feel.1600, [Torquato Tasso], “(please specify |book=1 to 20)”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield...

Verb (1)

fit (third-person singular simple present fits, present participle fitting, simple past and past participle fitted or fit)

  1. (transitive) To be suitable for.
    • It fits the purpose.
    • The speaker should be certain that his subject fits the occasion.1918, Richard Dennis Teall Hollister, Speech-making, publ. George Wahr, pg. 81
  2. (ambitransitive) To have sufficient space available at some location to be able to be there.
    • Ten clowns fit in the car, but not a hundred.
    • The elevator can fit up to 10 people.
  3. (transitive) To conform to in size and shape.
    • The small shirt doesn't fit me, so I'll buy the medium size.
    • If I lose a few kilos, the gorgeous wedding dress might fit me.
  4. (intransitive) To be of the right size and shape
    • She's changed the lock on our front door / My door key don't fit no more1947, “Move It On Over”, performed by Hank Williams
    • I know the pieces fit / 'Cause I watched them fall away2001, “Schism”, in Maynard James Keenan (lyrics), Adam Jones, Danny Carey, Maynard James Keenan, and Justin Chancellor (music), Lateralus, performed by Tool, track 5
    Synonyms:
    sit
  5. (transitive) To make conform in size and shape.
    • I want to fit the drapes to the windows.
    1. (transitive) To tailor; to change to the appropriate size.
      • I had a suit fitted by the tailor.
  6. (transitive) To be in agreement with.
    • These definitions fit most of the usage.
    • Type D half-lines ending in words of this type are analysed by Hutcheson as ending in two completely unstressed syllables. That analysis must be descriptively correct for, say, the 10th cent.; whether it would have fitted the facts in the 8th cent. is much less clear.2004 October 14, Don Ringe, “Old English maþelian, mæþlan, mǣlan”, in J. H. W. Penney, editor, Indo-European Perspectives: Studies in Honour of Anna Morpurgo Davies, Oxford University Press, →ISBN...
  7. (transitive) To adjust.
    • The regression program fit a line to the data.
  8. (transitive) To attach, especially when requiring exact positioning or sizing.
    • Williams had a problem fitting his left rear tyre and that left Alonso only 3.1secs adrift when he rejoined from his final stop three laps later.2012 May 13, Andrew Benson, “Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win”, in BBC Sport
  9. (transitive) To equip or supply.
    • The chandler will fit us with provisions for a month.
  10. (transitive) To make ready.
    • I’m fitting the ship for a summer sail home.
    • I’m fitting to go home and sleep.
    Synonyms:
    fix to
  11. (archaic, intransitive) To be seemly.
  12. To be proper or becoming.
    • Nor fits it to prolong the heav'nly feast.1725, Homer, “Book III”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC
  13. (intransitive) To be in harmony.
    • The paint, the fabrics, the rugs all fit.
    Synonyms:
    mesh

Noun (1)

fit (plural fits)

  1. The degree to which something fits.
    • This shirt is a bad fit.
    • Since he put on weight, his jeans have been a tight fit.
  2. Conformity of elements one to another.
    • It's hard to get a good fit using second-hand parts.
  3. The part of an object upon which anything fits tightly.
  4. Measure of how well a particular commercial execution captures the character or values of a brand.
    • The Wonder Bread advertising research results showed the “White Picket Fence” commercial had strong fit ratings.
  5. Goodness of fit.
  6. The quality of a partnership's combined holding of cards in a suit, particularly of trump.
    • During the auction, it is often a partnership's goal to find an eight-card major suit fit.

Noun (2)

fit (plural fits)

  1. (archaic) A section of a poem or ballad.
    • Dr. Percy has written a long ballad in many fits.1771, Samuel Johnson, "Letter to Bennet Langton, Esq. (March 20)," in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol 2

Noun (3)

fit (plural fits)

  1. A seizure or convulsion.
    • My grandfather died after having a fit.
  2. A sudden and vigorous appearance of a symptom over a short period of time.
  3. A sudden outburst of emotion.
    • He had a laughing fit which lasted more than ten minutes.
    • She had a fit and threw all of his clothes out through the window.
    Synonyms:
    spell, moment
  4. A sudden burst (of an activity).
    • A fit of spring-cleaning led Eric Brooks to a box of old newspaper clips from 1997.2007 July 9, Ryan J. Foley, “Wisconsin city's largest employer threatens to leave over ethanol”, in Associated Press
    Synonyms:
    flurry, frenzy, paroxysm

Verb (2)

fit (third-person singular simple present fits, present participle fitting, simple past and past participle fitted)

  1. (intransitive) To suffer a fit.
    • A spokesman said: "It is believed they (the dogs) got into the lake and drank from it. They came out and started fitting. Shortly after that three of them died and vets are attempting to resuscitate the other one."2016 May 18, “Three dogs die and seven more ill after drinking from the same Kent lake amid contamination fears”, in The Telegraph

Noun (4)

fit (plural fits)

  1. (slang) An outfit, a set of clothing.
    • How do you like the fit?
    • Piker had already shown off his “cozy-ass ’fit” (sweatpants with kitschy bald eagles, a custom pair of platform Crocs), and recounted his experience the previous night at the Streamer Awards, a red-carpet event honoring A-listers on Twitch—the popular live-streaming site where he is one of the...2025 March 17, Andrew Marantz, “The Battle for the Bros”, in The New Yorker, →ISSN

Noun (5) capitalized: FIT

FIT (countable and uncountable, plural FITs)

  1. (abbreviation, countable, initialism) Initialism of feed-in tariff.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism, uncountable) Initialism of fully inclusive tour.
  3. (abbreviation, initialism, uncountable) Initialism of fully independent travel.

Proper noun capitalized: FIT

FIT

  1. (abbreviation, initialism, file format) Initialism of flexible and interoperable data transfer, a format used by Garmin devices.

Noun (6) capitalized: FiT

FiT (plural FiTs)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of feed-in tariff.

Also used as

fit is also the simple past and past participle of fight.

fit meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

fit in Hindi

seizure
मिर्गी mirgī, दौरा daurā

fit in Tamil

to conform to in size and shape
கொள் koḷ

fit in Marathi

तंदुरुस्त, फिट, फिट करणे

fit in Urdu

seizure
مرگی mirgī
More languagesFewer languages
fit in Bengali
ফিট
fit in Telugu
మూర్చ mūrca
fit in Malayalam
ഫിറ്റ്
fit in Kannada
ಹೊಂದಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವಂತೆ
fit in Punjabi
ਫਿੱਟ, ਫਿੱਟ ਕਰੋ, ਫਿੱਟ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
fit in Gujarati
ફિટ, બંધબેસતું, ફીટ કરવા માટે
fit in Odia
ଫିଟ କରନ୍ତୁ, ଫିଟ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ, ଫିଟ
fit in Nepali
फिट, फिट हुन्छ, फिट गर्न
fit in Arabic
لَاقَ lāqa, نَاسَبَ nāsaba
fit in Indonesian
fit, sehat, segar bugar, sesuai
fit in Persian
فیت fit, سزیدن sazidan
fit in Vietnamese
vừa, thích hợp

Examples of fit in a sentence

  • I wanted to borrow my little sister's jeans, but they didn't fit.
  • That plug fit into the other socket, but it won't go in this one.
  • He threw a fit (of temper) when his car broke down.
  • He had drunk more than was fit for him, and he was singing some light song, when he saw approaching, as he said, the pale horse mentioned in the Revelation, with Death seated as the rider.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
  • The rest we'll leave to be examined later, if we think fit;2005, Lesley Brown, Sophist, translation of original by Plato, 243d:
  • Sergeant Schlock has no horse, no armor, and no sword, but even the mightiest Mongol horse-warrior would see in him a fit heir.2015 February 1, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary, archived from the original on 14 May 2024:

All 40 example sentences with fit

Synonyms of fit

All synonyms of fit

Forms of fit

Adjective
comparativefitter
superlativefittest
Verb
third-person singular presentfits
present participlefitting
past participlefitted
pastfitted
past participlefit
pastfit
Noun
pluralfits
pluralFITs
pluralFiTs

Past tense of fit: fitted or fit

Plural of fit: fits

Origin of fit

Possibly from Middle English fit (“an adversary of equal power”), of uncertain further origin. The original sense appears to have been "to marshal or deploy troops", which shifted to "to suit (troops to a certain location" > "suitable", and may be further related to Icelandic fitja (“to web, knit, cast on”).

Unknown, possibly from Old English fitt (“song”), or from the sense of fitted to length. Compare Old Saxon *fittea (attested in the borrowed Latin vittea).

Unknown. From Middle English fit (“hardship, danger”), possibly from Old English fitt (“conflict”)—a word only attested once. Compare Cornish fit (“game match, bout”); or else, maybe cognate with Italian fitta (“sudden and stabbing pain”) (see further at Latin fīgere).

Words formed from fit

Phrases with fit

25 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with fit

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about fit

What does fit mean?
Fit means suitable; proper.
What is fit in Hindi?
Fit in Hindi is मिर्गी (mirgī), दौरा (daurā). See Fit meaning in Hindi.
How do you use fit in a sentence?
I wanted to borrow my little sister's jeans, but they didn't fit.
What part of speech is fit?
Fit can be an adjective, a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce fit?
Fit is pronounced /fɪt/.

Words near fit in the dictionary

  1. fistulous
  2. fistulous withers
  3. fistulæ
  4. fistwise
  5. fisty
  6. fit
  7. fit and finish
  8. fit as a butcher's dog
  9. fit as a fiddle
  10. fit as a flea
  11. fit as a lop

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fit (page history and authors); FIT (page history and authors); FiT (page history and authors); fit (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fit (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fit (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fit (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fit (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fit (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fit (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fit (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-fit.ogg.

Cite this entry: “fit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.