HOW TO PRONOUNCE
bit
/bɪt/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:47
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What does bit mean?
noun
- A small amount of something.
- A piece of metal placed in a horse's mouth and connected to the reins to direct the animal.
- A rotary cutting tool, fitted to a drill, brace, or router, used to bore or drill holes or to remove material from the profile of the workpiece.
More meanings (32)
noun
- Synonym of microbitcoin.
- (informal) Specifically, a small amount of time.
- (informal) A small fraction above a whole number.
- (informal) Fractions of a second.
- A portion of something.
- Somewhat; something, but not very great; also used like jot and whit to express the smallest degree. See also a bit.
- A replaceable tip for a hand tool or power tool, comprising the portion that drives a fastener.
- (slang) A prison sentence, especially a short one.
- An excerpt of material making up part of a show, comedy routine, etc.
- (slang) A gag or put-on; a humorous conceit, especially when insistently presented as true.
- Ellipsis of bit part.
- The part of a key which enters the lock and acts upon the bolt and tumblers.
- The cutting iron of a plane.
- The bevelled front edge of an axehead along which the cutting edge runs.
- A gag of a style similar to a bridle.
- A gun.
- A binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0.
- The smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit.
- Any datum that may take on one of exactly two values.
- A unit of measure for information entropy.
- A microbitcoin, or a millionth of a bitcoin (0.000001 BTC).
- (dated) A coin of a specified value.
- (historical) A unit of currency worth one eighth of a dollar, originally of a Spanish dollar but later also US or Canadian; also, a coin with this value, in particular the silver Spanish real.
- (obsolete) A coin of a value similar but not equal to this, in particular the ‘short bit’, i.e. the ten-cent piece or dime.
- (historical) A unit of currency and coin of the British West Indies worth six black dogs, originally equal to one-eighth of a Spanish dollar but later increasingly debased to one tenth, one eleventh, one twelfth, etc.
- (historical) A unit of currency of the Dutch West Indies in the early 20th century, worth one fifth of a cent.
verb
- To put a bridle upon; to put the bit in the mouth of (a horse).
- simple past of bite
- (archaic, informal) past participle of bite, bitten
adjective
- Having been bitten.
proper noun
- An Austroasiatic language spoken in China and Laos.
- Acronym of Behavioural Insights Team.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/bɪt/
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
And perhaps she was a bit nervous, I don’t know, but she got Moadine to come and stay next door to her.
My brother looked up, and the man with the gold twisted his head round and bit the wrist that held his collar.
More book examples (3)
She bit her lip and turned away, but not before I saw the black and ugly scowl she turned upon Dejah Thoris.
Jim smelt it and bit it and rubbed it, and said he would manage so the hair-ball would think it was good.
“Not a bit of it. I don’t wonder you were peppery. Those things are awfully trying. How do you think it’s going?”