petit
/ˈpɛtət/adjective, noun
petit is an adjective meaning “Petite: small, little” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-E-T-I-T and has 2 syllables, and it appears 1.9 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does petit mean?
adjective
- 1
Petite: small, little.
And by what small, petit Hints does the Mind catch hold of, and recover a vanishing Notion?
- 2
obsoleteFew in number.
- 3
Unimportant; cheap; easily replaced.
- 4
Small, minor.
- 5
archaicSecondary; lower in rank.
noun
- 1
obsoleteA little schoolboy.
- 2
obsoleterareA kind of pigeon.
- 3
datedSynonym of brevier.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce petit?
- UK /ˈpɛti/
- UK /pəˈtiː/
- US /ˈpɛtət/
Petit has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-petit.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-petit2.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of petit
- more petit comparative
- most petit superlative
- petits plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is petit?
Petit appears 1.9 times per million words in written English, the 20,356th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Where does petit come from?
From Middle English petit, from Old French petit, from Late Latin *pitittus, diminutive of Latin *pit-, possibly from Proto-Celtic *pett- (“part, bit, piece”) (see Latin pettia), or of imitative origin. Compare also Latin pitinnus (“small”), pitulus, Italian pezza. Doublet of petty.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).