whit

[ wit, hwit ]
See synonyms for whit on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a particle; bit; jot (used especially in negative phrases): not a whit better.

Origin of whit

1
1470–80; perhaps alteration of Middle English wihtwight1

Words that may be confused with whit

Words Nearby whit

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use whit in a sentence

  • The tone was set early when Republican pollster whit Ayers declared that “we are in an epic struggle against secular socialism.”

    CPAC Defiant in Obama Era | Howard Kurtz | March 14, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • The rapid spread of the revolt was not a whit less marvelous than its lack of method or cohesion.

    The Red Year | Louis Tracy
  • Was the second Charles one whit more desirable than the first of that ilk?

  • The tower in the Grand Place is very fine, and the bricks of which it is built do not yield a whit in color to the best stone.

    Little Travels and Roadside Sketches | William Makepeace Thackeray
  • His flow of speech is incessant; he seems not a whit disconcerted by my evident disinclination to talk.

    Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist | Alexander Berkman
  • Isabel's theory of life—for women of her make—had not altered a whit, but the beckoning finger had lost its vigor.

    Ancestors | Gertrude Atherton

British Dictionary definitions for whit (1 of 2)

whit

/ (wɪt) /


noun
  1. (usually used with a negative) the smallest particle; iota; jot: he has changed not a whit

Origin of whit

1
C15: probably variant of wight 1

British Dictionary definitions for Whit (2 of 2)

Whit

/ (wɪt) /


noun
adjective
  1. of or relating to Whitsuntide

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