bit
Pluralbits
Pluralbits
- 1A small amount or quantity of something.
Like a pinch of salt compared to the whole shaker.
There was still a bit of milk left in the carton.
He needed a bit of luck to finish the puzzle.
UsageUsually a bit of + noun: a bit of milk, a bit of luck; bits of paper are scattered pieces.
Oppositelot
- 2
- 3A small degree or extent, as in a bit tired or a bit late, or in negatives, not at all.
The new manager turned out to be a bit of a perfectionist.
The room felt a bit cold, so she closed the window.
Usagea bit + adjective (a bit tired), but a bit of a + noun (a bit of a perfectionist).
Similarlittle
Note
Like jot and whit, it can measure the smallest degree, mostly in denials: Not a bit of it! answers a question with a flat no. More often it softens, as in a bit tired. Theodore Hook's novel Gilbert Gurney has a young companion who "was a bit of a poet," which is less than calling him one.
- 4A binary digit, 0 or 1, the smallest unit of information in computing and digital storage.
The file was corrupted when a single bit flipped during transfer.
In binary, the number five is written with three bits: 1, 0, and 1.
UsageNot the same as a byte, which is eight bits; network speeds are often given in bits per second, file sizes in bytes.
Note
The name is a clipped binary digit, coined by John Tukey around 1946 and first printed by Claude Shannon in 1948. Its echo of "small portion" was probably part of the appeal, and the food joke spread to byte and nybble. In mathematics and computing it means the digit itself, a 1 or a 0, before any question of storage.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- Bit abbreviates binary digit and was coined by John Tukey around 1946. en.wiktionary.org
- Claude Shannon first published the technical term in 1948. en.wikipedia.org
- The connection with the ordinary meaning plausibly contributed to the term’s appeal. cse.buffalo.edu
- Byte continues the food-related wordplay through bite. en.wikipedia.org
- Nybble continues the wordplay through nibble and bite. en.wikipedia.org
- 5
- 6Past tense of bite. In older or informal use, also its past participle.
The puppy bit through the leash during the walk.
He bit his tongue to keep from laughing.
UsageAfter has or was, usually bitten: the dog bit him; he was bitten twice.
Note
The modern past tense is a replacement: Old English said bāt and Middle English bot, a strong past with its own vowel, before today's form bit took over. It carries all of bite's meanings, including the figurative ones, as in the tires bit into the snow or the new rules bit hard.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Modern bit replaced an earlier strong past tense represented by Old English bāt and Middle English bot. en.wiktionary.org
- 7A short comic routine or piece of a performance, or a joke someone keeps up as if it were true.
Her stand-up set opened with a bit about online dating.
My brother pretended to forget my name all through dinner and refused to drop the bit.
UsageCommon phrases: do a bit about something, drop the bit, commit to the bit.
- 8Short for bit part: a small acting role with few or no lines in a film, play or TV show.
The casting director offered him a bit as a bartender, with three lines and one day of shooting.
Her first bit had only two lines of dialogue.
UsageOften a bit as + role (a bit as a bartender); actors take or play bits, as they would parts.
Less common meanings
- 9A replaceable tip fitted to a drill, router, or screwdriver, used to bore holes, cut, or drive screws.
She swapped the dull bit for a carbide one before drilling the steel.
A masonry bit is needed to bore through brick.
UsageUsually named by its job or material: drill bit, masonry bit.
- 10A mouthpiece, usually of metal, placed in a horse's mouth and attached to the reins, used to guide and control the animal.
She adjusted the bit so it sat comfortably in the gelding's mouth.
Some horses chew nervously on the bit before a race.
Note
For riders the word is a family name covering many designs; snaffle, pelham and kimberwicke each name one particular kind. The same piece of tack gives the verb for fitting it.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Bits encompass many designs. en.wikipedia.org
- A snaffle is a kind of horse bit. en.wikipedia.org
- A pelham is a kind of horse bit. en.wikipedia.org
- A kimberwicke is a kind of horse bit. en.wikipedia.org
- The verb bit means to put a bit in a horse's mouth. en.wiktionary.org
- 11Having been bitten, chiefly in compounds that name the biter, such as dog-bit or flea-bit.
'Got dog-bit twice delivering papers as a kid,' Grandpa said, rolling up his sleeve to show the scar.
'Look at my legs,' Tara groaned on the last morning of the campout, 'I'm mosquito-bit all over.'
UsageOn its own, bitten is usual; -bit joins the word for the biter: flea-bit, mosquito-bit.
Note
It mostly turns up at the end of compounds that name the biter: skeeter-bit in Field & Stream (1984), dog-bit in Robert Lewis Taylor's The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1958), bug-bit in Adele Griffin's Rainy Season (1996).
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Field & Stream contains an example of skeeter-bit dated 1984. en.wiktionary.org
- The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters contains dog-bit. en.wiktionary.org
- Robert Lewis Taylor wrote The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, first published in 1958. en.wikipedia.org
- Rainy Season contains bug-bit. en.wiktionary.org
- Adele Griffin wrote Rainy Season, first published in 1996. openroadmedia.com
- 12A period of time someone spends serving a prison term, particularly a short one.
He served a three-year bit before making parole.
After his last bit, he swore he'd stay clean.
UsageUsually do a bit or serve a bit, often with a length: a three-year bit.
Similarstretch, sentence, term
Note
Thomas Mott Osborne, warden of Sing Sing, still set it in quotation marks in 1916. The 'short' part is a tendency, not a rule: Andrew Vachss writes of a felony bit with years to go, against a brief county-time slap. Bid is a near synonym from the same slang.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Thomas Mott Osborne was warden of Sing Sing. en.wikipedia.org
- Osborne used the prison sense of bit in quotation marks in 1916. en.wiktionary.org
- Andrew Vachss uses felony bit for a sentence with years remaining, contrasting it with a county-time slap. en.wiktionary.org
- Bid is also prison slang for a prison sentence. en.wiktionary.org
- 13To fit a horse with a bridle, setting the bit in the toothless gap between its front and back teeth.
It takes a calm hand to bit a nervous horse without upsetting it.
Before the lesson, she bitted and saddled the old gelding, checking that the snaffle sat comfortably in its mouth.
Similarbridle
- 14The end of a key that is inserted into a lock and works the bolt and tumblers.
A locksmith examined the bit to find out why the key jammed.
The locksmith studied the worn bit of the antique key before cutting a new one for the chest.
- 15A unit of currency worth one eighth of a dollar, originally of a Spanish dollar; also a coin of that value, especially the silver Spanish real.
He left after shaking her down for four bits for carrying the bags.
1966, Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49A quarter is two bits.
Note
Americans and Canadians once reckoned in eighths of a dollar, so a bit came to 12½ cents: two bits made a quarter, four bits half a dollar. The unit is historical, but the counted phrases kept going. Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) still has someone charging "four bits for carrying the bags."
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- Americans and Canadians historically used bits as monetary units. en.wiktionary.org
- A bit represented one eighth of a dollar, or 12½ cents; two bits represented a quarter and four bits half a dollar. gutenberg.org
- Odd bits were also reckoned; historical accounts describe a single bit, including short and long bits. gutenberg.org
- The monetary unit became historical while expressions counting bits survived. en.wikipedia.org
- Thomas Pynchon wrote The Crying of Lot 49, first published in 1966. openlibrary.org
- The novel describes someone obtaining four bits for carrying bags, using the quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
- 16
- 17On an axehead, the beveled front edge that carries the sharpened cutting edge.
The bit of the axe struck the log squarely and split it in one blow.
Slip a leather sheath over the axe's bit before you pack it for the trip.
Similaredge
- 18A coin of a specified value, the amount given before the word, as in a threepenny or sixpenny piece.
Gran kept a threepenny bit in her apron for luck.
The old sixpenny bit was no longer accepted at the shop.
Note
Here the word means the coin as an object, much as piece does, rather than a sum of money. In British use the value comes first, as in a threepenny bit; bit alone as a coin belongs mainly to old North American and West Indian money.
- 19A unit of measure for information entropy, equal to the information gained from a choice between two equally likely outcomes.
- 20One millionth of a bitcoin (0.000001 BTC).
- 21A gag of a style similar to a bridle, worn in the mouth.
- 22A firearm; a gun.
- 23A coin worth close to, but not exactly, an eighth of a dollar, especially the dime, which was called a short bit.
- 24A former coin and money unit of Britain's Caribbean colonies, at first worth an eighth of the Spanish dollar, then steadily less as it was debased.
I trusted to the Lord to be with me; and at one of our trips to St. Eustatia, a Dutch island, I bought a glass tumbler with my half bit, and when I came to Montserrat I sold it for a bit, or sixpence.
1789, Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative - 25A tiny money unit of the Danish West Indies early in the 1900s, five of which made one cent.
Showing meanings only.
More uses
- a bitslightly, or a little, as in a bit tired
bit is a form of bite
bite, verb: To use the teeth to cut into, grip, or wound something or someone. Full entry
- Spelling
- bite → bit: irregular (no -ed)
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of bit apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origins
Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- ("to split") is the root of both Proto-Germanic *bitô and *bitiz. These gave two Old English words, bite ("a bite, cut") and bita ("bit, fragment, morsel"), which became Middle English bitte and bite. The word is related to bite.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd-, meaning “to split”, is the root of Proto-Germanic *bitô and *bitiz. en.wiktionary.org
- The Germanic forms gave Old English bite and bita, with the stated meanings. en.wiktionary.org
- The Old English words developed into Middle English bite, also spelled bitte. en.wiktionary.org
- Bit is etymologically related to bite. en.wiktionary.org
This is a form of bite (see that word). It took over from an older strong past tense, which was bāt in Old English and bot in Middle English.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Bit is a form of bite. en.wiktionary.org
- Bit replaced an older strong past tense. en.wiktionary.org
- The older past-tense form was bāt in Old English and bot in Middle English. en.wiktionary.org
John Tukey made up the word in 1946 as a short form of binary digit, probably with the idea of a "small portion" in mind. Claude Shannon was the first to use it in print, in 1948. Byte and nybble play on food in a similar way.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- John Tukey coined the computing term bit in 1946. en.wiktionary.org
- Bit abbreviates binary digit. en.wiktionary.org
- The coinage was probably influenced by the existing meaning 'small portion'. en.wiktionary.org
- Claude Shannon first used the technical term in print in 1948. en.wikipedia.org
- Byte plays on the food-related word bite. en.wikipedia.org
- Nybble similarly plays on nibble and bite. en.wikipedia.org