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PlainSpell

bit

/ˈbɪt/noun, verb, adjective

bit is spelled B-I-T: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 234 times per million words in written English, the 425th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, bit means “A small amount of something” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of bit is bits.

How many letters and syllables are in bit?

Letters3: B-I-T
Syllables1
In writing234 times per million words; the 425th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is bit?

Bit appears 234 times per million words in written English, the 425th 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).

How do you pronounce bit?

  • /ˈbɪt/
  • Australia /ˈbɪ̝t/
  • /ˈbət/

Bit has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-bit.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-bit.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with bit?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as bit.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: tib.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of bit

  • bits plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • bitting participle, present
  • bitted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does bit mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A small amount of something.

    There were bits of paper all over the floor.

  2. 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. 3

    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.

    router bit

  4. 4

    UKdatedA coin of a specified value.

    a threepenny bit

  5. 5

    CanadaUSA 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.

    A quarter is two bits.

  6. 6

    CanadaUSobsoleteA coin of a value similar but not equal to this, in particular the ‘short bit’, i.e. the ten-cent piece or dime.

  7. 7

    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.

  8. 8

    A unit of currency of the Dutch West Indies in the early 20th century, worth one fifth of a cent.

  9. 9

    A binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0.

  10. 10

    The smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit.

  11. 11

    Any datum that may take on one of exactly two values.

    status bits on IRC

  12. 12

    A unit of measure for information entropy.

  13. 13

    A microbitcoin, or a millionth of a bitcoin (0.000001 BTC).

verb

  1. 1

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

  2. 2

    simple past of bite (a form of bite)

    Your dog bit me!

  3. 3

    archaicinformalpast participle of bite, bitten (a form of bite, bitten)

    I've been bit by your dog!

adjective

  1. 1

    Having been bitten.

    Even though he's bit, of course the zombies would still chase him.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Bit in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmors (metal in horse's mouth), foret (rotary cutting tool), petit morceau, peu (small amount of something – see also a little…), instant, minute (small amount of time)
GermanGebiss, Mundstück (metal in horse's mouth), Bohrer (rotary cutting tool), Bisschen, Wenig (small amount of something – see also a little…), Bit (eighth of a dollar)
Portuguesebocado, bocal, morso, freio (metal in horse's mouth), broca, pua (rotary cutting tool)
Spanishbocado (metal in horse's mouth), broca (rotary cutting tool), grisma, colmo, pedacito (small amount of something – see also a little…), octavo de dólar (eighth of a dollar)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does bit come from?

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”). More at bite.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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