it
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "it", 2-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "it" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "it" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
it is aEnglishpron. It means: The third-person singular neuter personal pronoun used to refer to an inanimate object, abstract entity, or non-human living thing. Pronounced /ɪt/. It ranks #12 in English word frequency. Often confused with IV and iz.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | it |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Pron |
| IPA | /ɪt/ |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for it is 2 letters long, classified as apron, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #12 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for it in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "IV", "iz", "its", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English it, hit ( > dialectal English hit (“it”)), from Old English hit (“it”), from Proto-West Germanic *hit, from Proto-Germanic *hit (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe (“here; here”). Cognates Cognate with Yola it, t', yt (“it”)… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is it, spelled I-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The third-person singular neuter personal pronoun used to refer to an inanimate object, abstract entity, or non-human living thing.
- 2A third-person singular personal pronoun used to refer to a baby or child, especially of unknown gender.
- 3A third-person singular pronoun used to refer to an unspecified person.
- 4An affectionate third-person singular personal pronoun.
- 5A third-person singular personal pronoun used to refer to an animate referent who is transgender or non-binary.
- 6Refers to someone being identified, often on the phone, but not limited to this situation.
- 7The impersonal pronoun, used without referent as the subject of an impersonal verb or statement (known as the dummy pronoun, dummy it or weather it).
- 8The impersonal pronoun, used without referent, or with unstated but contextually implied referent, in various short idioms or expressions.
- 9The impersonal pronoun, used without referent, or with unstated but contextually implied referent, in various short idioms or expressions.
- 10The impersonal pronoun, used without referent, or with unstated but contextually implied referent, in various short idioms or expressions.
- 11Sex appeal, especially that which goes beyond physical appearance.
- 12The impersonal pronoun, used as a placeholder for a delayed subject, or less commonly, object; known as the dummy pronoun (according to some definitions), anticipatory it or, more formally in linguistics, a syntactic expletive. The delayed subject is commonly a to-infinitive, a gerund, or a noun clause introduced by a subordinating conjunction.
- 13All or the end; something after which there is no more.
- 14Followed by an omitted and understood relative pronoun: That which; what.
Etymology
From Middle English it, hit ( > dialectal English hit (“it”)), from Old English hit (“it”), from Proto-West Germanic *hit, from Proto-Germanic *hit (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe (“here; here”). Cognates Cognate with Yola it, t', yt (“it”), North Frisian at, et, 't (“it”), Saterland Frisian et (“it”), West Frisian it (“it”), Dutch het (“it”), Luxembourgish hatt (“her, it, she”), Elfdalian eð (“it”); also Primitive Irish ᚕᚑᚔ (koi, “here”), Latin cis (“short of; before”), hic (“this”), Greek εκείνος (ekeínos, “that; those”). Compare Cimbrian es, is, 's, 'z (“it”), German es, 's (“it, there”), Mòcheno and Vilamovian s (“it”), Yiddish עס (es, “it”), Faroese ið (“that, which, who”), Gothic 𐌹𐍄𐌰 (ita, “it”), which instead descends from Proto-Germanic *it (“it”). More at he.
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #12 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter I in our English index: