Open main menu
Wiktionary

bit

See also: Bit, B.I.T., bít, and bịt

Contents

EnglishEdit

 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

PronunciationEdit

  • enPR: bĭt, IPA(key): /bɪt/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪt

Etymology 1Edit

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.

NounEdit

bit (plural bits)

  2. 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.
  3. A rotary cutting tool fitted to a drill, used to bore holes.
  4. (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
  5. (obsolete, Canada) A ten-cent piece, dime.
    • 1941, Emily Carr, Klee Wyck, Chapter 10, [1]
      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".
  6. (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.
  7. (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.
  8. 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[2]:
      ‘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?’
  9. (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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. (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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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?)
  15. The cutting iron of a plane.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
terms derived from bit (noun)
TranslationsEdit
coin — see coin
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.
Translations to be checked

AdverbEdit

bit (not comparable)

  1. To a small extent; in a small amount (usually with "a").
    That's a bit too sweet.
TranslationsEdit

VerbEdit

bit (third-person singular simple present bits, present participle bitting, simple past and past participle bitted)

  1. (transitive) To put a bridle upon; to put the bit in the mouth of (a horse).

Etymology 2Edit

See bite

VerbEdit

bit

  1. simple past tense of bite
    Your dog bit me!
  2. (informal in US, archaic in Britain) past participle of bite, bitten
    I have been bit by your dog!

AdjectiveEdit

bit (not comparable)

  1. (colloquial) bitten.
    Even though he's bit, of course the zombies would still chase him.
  2. (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

Etymology 3Edit

Coined by John Tukey in 1946 as an abbreviation of binary digit, probably influenced by connotations of “small portion”.[3][4] First used in print 1948 by Claude Shannon. Compare byte and nybble.

NounEdit

bit (plural bits)

  1. (mathematics, computing) A binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0.
  2. (computing) The smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit.
  4. (information theory, cryptography) Any datum that may take on one of exactly two values.
    status bits on IRC; permission bits in a file system
  5. (information theory) A unit of measure for information entropy.
    • 2011 May 17, Lisa Grossman, “Entropy Is Universal Rule of Language”, in Wired Science‎[5], 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.
  6. A microbitcoin, or a millionth of a bitcoin (0.000001 BTC).
SynonymsEdit
  • (smallest unit of storage): b
Derived termsEdit
terms derived from bit (noun)
TranslationsEdit
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.
Translations to be checked
See alsoEdit

AnagramsEdit

AzerbaijaniEdit

Other scripts
Cyrillic бит
Roman bit
Perso-Arabic بیت‎

EtymologyEdit

From Proto-Turkic *bït (“louse”).

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

bit (definite accusative biti, plural bitlər)

  1. louse

DeclensionEdit

Declension of bit
singular plural
nominative bit bitlər
definite accusative biti bitləri
dative bitə bitlərə
locative bitdə bitlərdə
ablative bitdən bitlərdən
definite genitive bitin bitlərin
Possessive forms of bit
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

CatalanEdit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

bit m (plural bits)

  1. (computing) bit

CzechEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowed from English bit, from binary digit.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

bit m

  1. (computing) bit

DeclensionEdit

Declension
singular plural
nominative bit bity
genitive bitu bitů
dative bitu bitům
accusative bit bity
vocative bite bity
locative bitu bitech
instrumental bitem bity

Derived termsEdit

DutchEdit

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

  This entry lacks etymological information. If you are familiar with the origin of this term, please add it to the page per etymology instructions. You can also discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.

NounEdit

bit n (plural bitten, diminutive bitje n)

  1. bit (for a working animal)
  2. bit (rotary cutting tool)
  3. mouthguard

Etymology 2Edit

From English bit.

NounEdit

bit m (plural bits, diminutive bitje n)

  1. bit (binary digit)
  2. bit (unit of storage)
  3. bit (datum with two possible values)

FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

From English

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

bit m (plural bits)

  1. (computing) bit

Further readingEdit

HungarianEdit

EtymologyEdit

From English bit.[1]

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): [ˈbit]
  • Hyphenation: bit

NounEdit

bit (plural bitek)

  1. (computing) bit (binary digit)

DeclensionEdit

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 termsEdit

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^ Tótfalusi István, Idegenszó-tár: Idegen szavak értelmező és etimológiai szótára. Tinta Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 2005, →ISBN

Lower SorbianEdit

PronunciationEdit

VerbEdit

bit

  1. supine of biś

Nigerian PidginEdit

EtymologyEdit

From English beat.

VerbEdit

bit

  1. beat

Norwegian BokmålEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From Old Norse biti

NounEdit

bit m (definite singular biten, indefinite plural biter, definite plural bitene)

  1. a bit, piece (of something)
  2. a bite, mouthful (of food)
Derived termsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

From English bit (binary digit)

NounEdit

bit m (definite singular biten, indefinite plural bit or biter, definite plural bitene)

  1. a bit (binary digit)

ReferencesEdit

Norwegian NynorskEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From Old Norse

NounEdit

bit m (definite singular biten, indefinite plural bitar, definite plural bitane)

  1. a bit, piece (of something)
Derived termsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

From English bit (binary digit)

NounEdit

bit m (definite singular biten, indefinite plural bit or bitar, definit plural bitane)

  1. a bit (binary digit)

Etymology 3Edit

From Old Norse bit

NounEdit

bit n (definite singular bitet, indefinite plural bit, definite plural bita)

  1. a bite (e.g. insect bite, dog bite)
  2. a bite, mouthful (of food)

ReferencesEdit

Old IrishEdit

PortugueseEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowed from English bit.

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /ˈbit͡ʃ(i)/, /ˈbit(i)/

NounEdit

bit m (plural bits)

  1. (mathematics, computing) bit (binary digit)

SynonymsEdit

  • Abbreviations: b

Coordinate termsEdit

Related termsEdit

  • byte (unit equivalent to 8 bits)

Serbo-CroatianEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From bȉti (“to be”)

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

bȋt f (Cyrillic spelling би̑т)

  1. essence
  2. point, meaning
DeclensionEdit
Declension of bit
singular plural
nominative bȋt biti
genitive biti bítī
dative biti bitima
accusative bit biti
vocative biti biti
locative biti bitima
instrumental biti bitima

Etymology 2Edit

From English bit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

bȉt m (Cyrillic spelling би̏т)

  1. (computing) bit
DeclensionEdit
Declension of bit
singular plural
nominative bȉt bìtovi
genitive bita bitova
dative bitu bitovima
accusative bit bitove
vocative bite bitovi
locative bitu bitovima
instrumental bitom bitovima

SpanishEdit

NounEdit

bit m (plural bits)

  1. bit (binary digit)

SwedishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old Norse biti, noun definitions 2 and 4: From English bit, from binary digit.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

bit c

  1. bit (small piece)
  2. bit (portion)
  3. bit (binary digit)
  4. bit (unit of storage)

DeclensionEdit

Declension of bit 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative bit biten bitar bitarna
Genitive bits bitens bitars bitarnas

Related termsEdit

VerbEdit

bit

  1. imperative of bita.

TurkishEdit

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From Proto-Turkic *bït (“louse”).

NounEdit

bit (definite accusative biti, plural bitler)

  1. (zoology) louse
DeclensionEdit
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
Possessive forms
Singular Plural
1st singular bitim bitlerim
2nd singular bitin bitlerin
3rd singular biti bitleri
1st plural bitimiz bitlerimiz
2nd plural bitiniz bitleriniz
3rd plural bitleri bitleri
Predicative forms
Singular Plural
1st singular bitim bitlerim
2nd singular bitsin bitlersin
3rd singular bit
bittir 		bitler
bitlerdir
1st plural bitiz bitleriz
2nd plural bitsiniz bitlersiniz
3rd plural bitler bitlerdir
Derived termsEdit
See alsoEdit

Etymology 2Edit

Borrowed from English bit, abbreviation of binary digit.

NounEdit

bit (definite accusative biti, plural bitler)

  1. (computing) bit
DeclensionEdit
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
Possessive forms
Singular Plural
1st singular bitim bitlerim
2nd singular bitin bitlerin
3rd singular biti bitleri
1st plural bitimiz bitlerimiz
2nd plural bitiniz bitleriniz
3rd plural bitleri bitleri
Predicative forms
Singular Plural
1st singular bitim bitlerim
2nd singular bitsin bitlersin
3rd singular bit
bittir 		bitler
bitlerdir
1st plural bitiz bitleriz
2nd plural bitsiniz bitlersiniz
3rd plural bitler bitlerdir

Etymology 3Edit

VerbEdit

bit

  1. second-person singular imperative of bitmek

TurkmenEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old Turkic bit‎ (bit), from Proto-Turkic *bɨt (“louse”).

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

bit (definite accusative bidi, plural bitler)

  1. (zoology) louse

DeclensionEdit

    declension of bit
singular plural
nominative bit bitler
accusative bidi bitleri
genitive bidiň bitleriň
dative bide bitlere
locative bitde bitlerde
ablative bitden bitlerden

VietnameseEdit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

bit

  1. (computing) bit

ZhuangEdit

EtymologyEdit

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).

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

bit (old orthography bit, Sawndip forms 鴓)

  1. duck
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=bit&oldid=51270230"