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dit

French, noun

dit is spelled D-I-T (3 letters) and appears 1,000 times per million words in written French, the 93rd most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Dit is a French masculine noun meaning “a sentence, saying or maxim” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a past participle of dire. With an accent, dît is a different word: “third-person singular imperfect subjunctive of dire”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Mot, propos, maxime, sentence. Il ne s’emploie guère que dans les locutions suivantes ”.

What does dit mean in English?

noun

  1. 1

    datedmasculinea sentence, saying or maxim

    Les Dits des sept sages

  2. 2

    masculinea story from the mediæval period; a tale

    Le Dit du Genji

verb

  1. 1

    past participle of dire

    Il a dit son nom.

  2. 2

    Indicating a surname used as a family name.

verb

  1. 1

    third-person singular present indicative of dire

verb

  1. 1

    third-person singular past historic of dire

    « Je m'appelle Paul, » dit-il.

verb

as dît
  1. 1

    third-person singular imperfect subjunctive of dire

Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How French dictionaries define it

noun: 1. Mot, propos, maxime, sentence. Il ne s’emploie guère que dans les locutions suivantes : 2. Fable, conte, dans la poésie du Moyen Âge.

adjective: 1. Appelé, surnommé. 2. Qui est celui dont on parle.

noun: 1. Assurance contre le décès ou l’invalidité totale, contractée dans le cadre d’un emprunt.

The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.

Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of dit

  • dits plural
  • dite feminine
  • dites feminine plural

Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to dit

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is dit in French?

dit appears 1,000 times per million words in written French.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

What to look up after dit