whit

/wɪt/

whit noun: the smallest part or particle imaginable; an iota. Also the pronunciation spelling of with.

Noun (1)

whit (plural whits)

(dated) The smallest part or particle imaginable; an iota.
- Star. I beleeue we muſt leaue the killing out, when all is done.
  Bot. Not a whit: I haue a deuice to make all well.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...
- 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.1890 December 9, Thomas H. Huxley, “Letter to the "Times" on the "Darkest England Scheme"”, in Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays
Synonyms:

bit, iota, jot, scrap, ace, atom, thought, atomy, aught, bissel

Noun (2) capitalized: Whit

Whit (plural Whits)

Whitsunday.
- Holonyms: Pentecost, Whitsun, Whitsuntide, Whit (season)
Synonyms:

Pentecost, Whitsun
The season of Whitsuntide.
- Meronyms: Pentecost, Whitsun, Whit (day)
Synonyms:

Pentecost, Whitsun, Whitsuntide

Proper noun capitalized: Whit

the Whit

(archaic, historical) Newgate Prison in London, England (particularly as it was in the 15- and 1600s).
- A Bow Street Runner says "I knew a cove as talked the way you do – leastways, in the way of business I knew him! In fact, you remind me of him very strong […] He was on the dub-lay, and very clever with his fambles. He ended up in the Whit, o’ course."1951, Georgette Heyer, The Quiet Gentleman
- One of the strong drinks brewed in the Whit, a place as noted for the variety of its potions as the irony of its expressions, was called 'South Sea'. The gin brewed in Newgate was […]2020 May 5, Peter Linebaugh, The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century, Verso Books, →ISBN

Also used as

whit is also the pronunciation spelling of with.

Examples of whit in a sentence

That American fortune was not to be sneezed at, nor was its possessor a whit less attractive.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 109:
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.'1917, Countee Cullen, Incident:
In conclusion, I would remark that the great railway stations of London deserve to be visited every whit as much as St.1944 July and August, “London Railway Stations in 1893”, in Railway Magazine, page 201, taken from The English Illustrated Magazine of June...

All 13 example sentences with whit

Synonyms of whit

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of whit

Forms of whit

plural	whits
plural	Whits

Origin of whit

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.

Shortening of the surname of Dick Whittington, London mayor who funded the rebuilding of the prison.

Words formed from whit

Phrases with whit

Words that rhyme with whit

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about whit

What does whit mean?: Whit means the smallest part or particle imaginable; an iota.
How do you use whit in a sentence?: That American fortune was not to be sneezed at, nor was its possessor a whit less attractive.
What part of speech is whit?: Whit can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce whit?: Whit is pronounced /wɪt/.
What is the plural of whit?: The plural of whit is whits.

Words near whit in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: whit (page history and authors); Whit (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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