bit
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: bĭt, IPA(key): /bɪt/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪt
Etymology 1
From Middle English bitte, bite, from Old English bita (“bit; fragment; morsel”) and bite (“a bite; cut”), from Proto-Germanic *bitô and *bitiz; both from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”). Cognate with West Frisian bit, Saterland Frisian Bit, Dutch bit, German Low German Beet, Biet, German Biss, Danish bid, Swedish bit, Icelandic biti.
Noun
bit (plural bits)
- A piece of metal placed in a horse's mouth and connected to the reins to direct the animal.
- A horse hates having a bit put in its mouth.
- A rotary cutting tool fitted to a drill, used to bore holes.
- (dated, Britain) A coin of a specified value. (Also formerly used for a nine-pence coin in the British Caribbean, and a fourpenny piece, or groat, in the British West Indies.)
- a threepenny bit
- (obsolete, Canada) A ten-cent piece, dime.
- 1941, Emily Carr, Klee Wyck, Chapter 10,
- The smallest coin we had in Canada in early days was a dime, worth ten cents. The Indians called this coin "a Bit". Our next coin, double in buying power and in size, was a twenty-five cent piece and this the Indians called "Two Bits".
- 1941, Emily Carr, Klee Wyck, Chapter 10,
- (US) An eighth of a dollar. Note that there is no coin minted worth 12.5 cents. (When this term first came into use, the Spanish 8 reales coin was widely used as a dollar equivalent, and thus the 1 real coin was equivalent to 12.5 cents.)
- A quarter is two bits.
- (historical, US) In the southern and southwestern states, a small silver coin (such as the real) formerly current; commonly, one worth about 12½ cents; also, the sum of 12½ cents.
- A small amount of something.
- There were bits of paper all over the floor. Does your leg still hurt? / Just a bit now. I've done my bit; I expect you to do yours.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 15, in The China Governess:
- ‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’
- (informal) Specifically, a small amount of time.
- I'll be there in a bit; I need to take care of something first. He was here just a bit ago, but it looks like he's stepped out.
- A portion of something.
- 2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist:
- Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. […] A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that. Developed as a tool to electronically combine the sharpest bits of multiple digital images, focus stacking is a boon to biologists seeking full focus on a micron scale.
- I'd like a big bit of cake, please.
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- Somewhat; something, but not very great; also used like jot and whit to express the smallest degree.
- Am I bored? Not a bit of it!
- T. Hook
- My young companion was a bit of a poet.
- (slang) A prison sentence, especially a short one.
- 1904, The Anamosa prison press, volume 7, Iowa. Colony of Detention at Anamosa:
- Had it not been for the influence of Mrs. Booth and Hope Hall I should still be grafting or doing a bit in some stir
- 1916, Thomas Mott Osborne. Warden, Sing Sing Prison, N. Y., “Prison Reform”, in The Journal of sociologic medicine, volume 17, page 407:
- Before doing that I am going to tell you what was the result of my own incarceration, because I presume it may not be a secret to you, that I have done a "bit" myself, not the "bit" which the prosecuting attorney was so anxious to have me do.
- 1994, Odie Hawkins, Lost Angeles, page 158:
- Chino didn't make me think of Dachau or that notorious joint in Angola, Louisiana, where a brother who had done a bit there told me how they used to cut the grass on the front lawn with their fingernails.
- 2001, Andrew H. Vachss, Pain management:
- Not counting the days—that's okay for a county-time slap, but it'll make you crazy if you've got years to go on a felony bit.
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- An excerpt of material making up part of a show, comedy routine, etc.
- His bit about video games was not nearly as entertaining as the other segments of his show.
- The part of a key which enters the lock and acts upon the bolt and tumblers.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)
- The cutting iron of a plane.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)
Synonyms
Derived terms
- bergy bit
- a bit
- bit by bit
- bit of rough
- bit on the side
- bit part
- bit player
- bit-banger
- bits and bobs
- bits and pieces
- bitty
- blown to bits
- brace and bit
- champ at the bit
- chomp at the bit
- do one's bit
- every bit
- fall to bits
- itty-bitty
- naughty bit
- not a bit, not one bit
- quite a bit
- sticky bit
- tit bit
- two-bit
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Adverb
bit (not comparable)
- To a small extent; in a small amount (usually with "a").
- That's a bit too sweet.
Translations
Verb
bit (third-person singular simple present bits, present participle bitting, simple past and past participle bitted)
- (transitive) To put a bridle upon; to put the bit in the mouth of (a horse).
Etymology 2
See bite
Verb
bit
Adjective
bit (not comparable)
- (colloquial) bitten.
- Even though he's bit, of course the zombies would still chase him.
- (only in combination) Having been bitten.
- 1984, Field & Stream, volume 89, number July, page 24:
- Fortunately, someone who gets skeeter-bit this much may develop an immunity to the skeeter's saliva
- 1992, Robert Lewis Taylor, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters:
- Only the year before, the conjure man had brought in the Jackson County madstone, from way over in Illinois, for a white peddler that had been dog-bit, and the man went ahead and died just the same
- 1998, Adele Griffin, Rainy Season, page 121:
- He will not — he'll tell you not to be loco, climbing up trees late at night when you'll get bug-bit to death plus you can't see anything
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Etymology 3
Coined by John Tukey in 1946 as an abbreviation of binary digit, probably influenced by connotations of “small portion”. First used in print 1948 by Claude Shannon. Compare byte and nybble.
Noun
bit (plural bits)
- (mathematics, computing) A binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0.
- (computing) The smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit.
- (information theory, cryptography) Any datum that may take on one of exactly two values.
- status bits on IRC; permission bits in a file system
- (information theory) A unit of measure for information entropy.
- 2011 May 17, Lisa Grossman, “Entropy Is Universal Rule of Language”, in Wired Science, retrieved 2012-09-26:
- The researchers found that the original texts spanned a variety of entropy values in different languages, reflecting differences in grammar and structure.
But strangely, the difference in entropy between the original, ordered text and the randomly scrambled text was constant across languages. This difference is a way to measure the amount of information encoded in word order, Montemurro says. The amount of information lost when they scrambled the text was about 3.5 bits per word.
- The researchers found that the original texts spanned a variety of entropy values in different languages, reflecting differences in grammar and structure.
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- A microbitcoin, or a millionth of a bitcoin (0.000001 BTC).
Synonyms
- (smallest unit of storage): b
Derived terms
- bit-depth
- bitwise
- hidden bit
- high-order bit
- least significant bit
- most significant bit
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Azerbaijani
Other scripts | |
---|---|
Cyrillic | бит |
Roman | bit |
Perso-Arabic | بیت |
Etymology
From Proto-Turkic *bït (“louse”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [bit]
Declension
nominative | ||
---|---|---|
singular | plural | |
mənim (“my”) | bitim | bitlərim |
sənin (“your”) | bitin | bitlərin |
onun (“his/her/its”) | biti | bitləri |
bizim (“our”) | bitimiz | bitlərimiz |
sizin (“your”) | bitiniz | bitləriniz |
onların (“their”) | biti or bitləri | bitləri |
accusative | ||
singular | plural | |
mənim (“my”) | bitimi | bitlərimi |
sənin (“your”) | bitini | bitlərini |
onun (“his/her/its”) | bitini | bitlərini |
bizim (“our”) | bitimizi | bitlərimizi |
sizin (“your”) | bitinizi | bitlərinizi |
onların (“their”) | bitini or bitlərini | bitlərini |
dative | ||
singular | plural | |
mənim (“my”) | bitimə | bitlərimə |
sənin (“your”) | bitinə | bitlərinə |
onun (“his/her/its”) | bitinə | bitlərinə |
bizim (“our”) | bitimizə | bitlərimizə |
sizin (“your”) | bitinizə | bitlərinizə |
onların (“their”) | bitinə or bitlərinə | bitlərinə |
locative | ||
singular | plural | |
mənim (“my”) | bitimdə | bitlərimdə |
sənin (“your”) | bitində | bitlərində |
onun (“his/her/its”) | bitində | bitlərində |
bizim (“our”) | bitimizdə | bitlərimizdə |
sizin (“your”) | bitinizdə | bitlərinizdə |
onların (“their”) | bitində or bitlərində | bitlərində |
ablative | ||
singular | plural | |
mənim (“my”) | bitimdən | bitlərimdən |
sənin (“your”) | bitindən | bitlərindən |
onun (“his/her/its”) | bitindən | bitlərindən |
bizim (“our”) | bitimizdən | bitlərimizdən |
sizin (“your”) | bitinizdən | bitlərinizdən |
onların (“their”) | bitindən or bitlərindən | bitlərindən |
genitive | ||
singular | plural | |
mənim (“my”) | bitimin | bitlərimin |
sənin (“your”) | bitinin | bitlərinin |
onun (“his/her/its”) | bitinin | bitlərinin |
bizim (“our”) | bitimizin | bitlərimizin |
sizin (“your”) | bitinizin | bitlərinizin |
onların (“their”) | bitinin or bitlərinin | bitlərinin |
Catalan
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bɪt/
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -ɪt
Noun
bit n (plural bitten, diminutive bitje n)
- bit (for a working animal)
- bit (rotary cutting tool)
- mouthguard
French
Etymology
From English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bit/
Audio (file)
Further reading
- “bit” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Hungarian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈbit]
- Hyphenation: bit
Declension
Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony) | ||
---|---|---|
singular | plural | |
nominative | bit | bitek |
accusative | bitet | biteket |
dative | bitnek | biteknek |
instrumental | bittel | bitekkel |
causal-final | bitért | bitekért |
translative | bitté | bitekké |
terminative | bitig | bitekig |
essive-formal | bitként | bitekként |
essive-modal | — | — |
inessive | bitben | bitekben |
superessive | biten | biteken |
adessive | bitnél | biteknél |
illative | bitbe | bitekbe |
sublative | bitre | bitekre |
allative | bithez | bitekhez |
elative | bitből | bitekből |
delative | bitről | bitekről |
ablative | bittől | bitektől |
Possessive forms of bit | ||
---|---|---|
possessor | single possession | multiple possessions |
1st person sing. | bitem | bitjeim |
2nd person sing. | bited | bitjeid |
3rd person sing. | bitje | bitjei |
1st person plural | bitünk | bitjeink |
2nd person plural | bitetek | bitjeitek |
3rd person plural | bitjük | bitjeik |
Derived terms
References
- Tótfalusi, István. Idegenszó-tár: Idegen szavak értelmező és etimológiai szótára (A Storehouse of Foreign Words: an explanatory and etymological dictionary of foreign words’). Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2005. →ISBN
Lashi
Norwegian Bokmål
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology 1
From Old Norse
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /biːt/
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bɪtː/
Noun
bit m (definite singular biten, indefinite plural bit or bitar, definit plural bitane)
- a bit (binary digit)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /biːt/
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /biːt/
Old Irish
Serbo-Croatian
Etymology 1
From bȉti (“to be”)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bîːt/
Declension
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bît/
Swedish
Etymology
From Old Norse biti, noun definitions 2 and 4: From English bit, from binary digit.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /biːt/ (1–4)
- IPA(key): /bɪt/ (3–4)
audio (file)
Declension
Declension of bit | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
Nominative | bit | biten | bitar | bitarna |
Genitive | bits | bitens | bitars | bitarnas |
Related terms
- pusselbit
- sockerbit
Turkish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈbit/
Etymology 1
From Proto-Turkic *bït (“louse”).
Declension
Inflection | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nominative | bit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Definite accusative | biti | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Singular | Plural | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nominative | bit | bitler | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Definite accusative | biti | bitleri | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dative | bite | bitlere | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Locative | bitte | bitlerde | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ablative | bitten | bitlerden | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genitive | bitin | bitlerin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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See also
- pire (flea)
Etymology 2
Borrowed from English bit, abbreviation of binary digit.
Declension
Inflection | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | bit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Definite accusative | biti | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Singular | Plural | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nominative | bit | bitler | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Definite accusative | biti | bitleri | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dative | bite | bitlere | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Locative | bitte | bitlerde | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ablative | bitten | bitlerden | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genitive | bitin | bitlerin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turkmen
Etymology
From Old Turkic bit (bit), from Proto-Turkic *bɨt (“louse”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bit̪/
Vietnamese
Pronunciation
- (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [ʔɓit̚˧˧]
- (Huế) IPA(key): [ʔɓit̚˧˧]
- (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA(key): [ʔɓɨt̚˧˧]
Zhuang
Pronunciation
- (Standard Zhuang) IPA(key): /pit˥/
- Tone numbers: bit7
- Hyphenation: bit
Etymology 1
From Proto-Tai *pitᴰ (“duck”). Cognate with Thai เป็ด (bpèt), Lao ເປັດ (pet), Lü ᦵᦔᧆ (ṗed), Tai Dam ꪹꪜꪸꪒ, Shan ပဵတ်း (pét), Ahom 𑜆𑜢𑜄𑜫 (pit), Bouyei bidt, Saek ปิ๊ด. Compare Old Chinese 鴄 (OC *pʰid).
Classifier
bit (old orthography bit)
- Classifier for sums of money and deals.