whit
noun
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whit
American
[hwit, wit]
/ ʰwɪt, wɪt /
noun
Whit
1
British
/ wɪt /
noun
adjective
whit
2
British
/ wɪt /
noun
Etymology
Origin of whit
1470–80; perhaps alteration of Middle English wiht wight 1
Explanation
Whit means a small tiny part of something. If you don't even have a whit of courage, you are most likely a chicken. Whit indicates a bit of something, and usually something abstract like a feeling or emotion. You might feel the last whit of your confidence depart when your teacher hands out the 32-page final exam. Don't confuse whit with wit, meaning mental sharpness or keen sense of humor. Let's hope you have more than a whit of wit in your personality!
Vocabulary lists containing whit
Julius Caesar
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Tuck Everlasting
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100 SAT words Beginning with W,X,Y, and Z
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The handwritten lease, rife with misspellings, said he could stay there until he “seatel his case whit Dawntow Law Group.”
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 31, 2025
Speculators, in contrast, care not a whit for cash flow; they are focused instead on future stock prices.
From MarketWatch • Oct. 24, 2025
As I argue in my new book, at the time of the stand of the 300 at Thermopylae, the Spartans cared not a whit for freedom or liberating others.
From Slate • Jan. 16, 2024
"You could have teams of defense lawyers and experts review those documents until the end of time and it wouldn't matter one whit to the outcome of the case," he wrote.
From Salon • Oct. 5, 2023
I wasn’t smiling much that fall, but my handwriting didn’t improve a whit thereby.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
