Word.ws English Dictionary

short bit

short bit noun: the monetary amount of ten cents.

Noun

short bit (plural short bits)

  1. (US, historical) The monetary amount of ten cents.

Forms of short bit

pluralshort bits

Origin of short bit

With the adoption of decimal US currency in 1794, there was no longer a US coin worth one eighth of a dollar, but two bits retained the meaning of one quarter dollar. Because there was no one-bit coin, a dime (10¢) was sometimes called a short bit and 15¢ a long bit.

Questions about short bit

What does short bit mean?
Short bit means the monetary amount of ten cents.
What part of speech is short bit?
Short bit is a noun.
What is the plural of short bit?
The plural of short bit is short bits.

Words near short bit in the dictionary

  1. short arm
  2. short arms
  3. short back and sides
  4. short ballot
  5. short ballots
  6. short bit
  7. short bits
  8. short black
  9. short blacks
  10. short block
  11. short blocks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: short bit (page history and authors). 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.

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