lite

[lahyt]Informal.

adjective

noting a commercial product that is low in calories or low in any substance considered undesirable, as compared with a product of the same type: used especially in labeling or advertising commercial products: lite beer.
noting a version that is comparatively less extreme, profound, advanced, etc., than the typical version (often used postpositively): The film glossed over the dangers of the experiment with a science-lite explanation. The lite version of the app is available for mobile download.

noun

light²(def 36).

Origin of lite

First recorded in 1965–70; an informal, simplified spelling of light²

Related formslite·ness, noun

Can be confusedlite light

-lite

a combining form used in the names of minerals or fossils: aerolite; chrysolite.

Also -lyte².

Compare -lith.

Origin of -lite

< French, simplified form of -lithe < Greek líthos stone; similarly German -lit, earlier -lith

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for lite

Contemporary Examples of lite

Ngai associates it with other "lite" aesthetic categories promulgated by postwar consumer culture: quaint, wacky, quirky, cool.
Zany, Cute, Interesting: What the Words We Use Say About Us
Benjamin Lytal
October 23, 2012
Even The Wall Street Journal weighed in, describing LeMieux as nothing more than “Charlie Crist lite.”
Another GOP Star Stumbles
Jim DeFede
September 4, 2009

Historical Examples of lite

Why should not these members of the lite have exceptional enjoyment?
Ten Tales
Franois Coppe
This lite of which the University is thus robbed must be got back.
The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 6 (of 6)
Hippolyte A. Taine
The choicest of the lite were there,—ladies in demi-toilet and bonneted.
Music and Some Highly Musical People
James M. Trotter
The elect of God, the lite of all the centuries, of whom the world was not worthy.
Talks To Farmers
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
The lite of intelligence and fashion honored us with their presence.
Alone
Marion Harland

British Dictionary definitions for lite

lite

adjective

(of food and drink) containing few calories or little alcohol or fat
denoting a more restrained or less extreme version of a person or thingreggae lite

Word Origin for lite

C20: variant spelling of light ²

-lite

n combining form

(in names of minerals) stonechrysolite Compare -lith

Word Origin for -lite

from French -lite or -lithe, from Greek lithos stone

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for lite

adj.

alternative spelling of light (adj.1), by 1962. Used from at least 1917 in product names, often as a variation of light (n.).

The word Adjusto-Lite for portable electric lamps was opposed by the user of a trade mark Auto-lite registered before the date of use claimed by the applicant. ["The Trade-Mark Reporter," 1922]

-lite

word-forming element meaning "stone," from French -lite, variant of -lithe, from Greek lithos "stone" (see litho-).