petit
French, noun/pə.ti/
petit is spelled P-E-T-I-T (5 letters) and appears 468 times per million words in written French, the 169th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Petit is a French masculine noun meaning “small one (anything that is small)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Enfant”.
What does petit mean in English?
adjective
- 1
small
un petit verre de vin
- 2
little
un petit garçon
- 3
petty
Certaines personnes sont vraiment petites à propos des plus petites choses.
noun
- 1
masculinesmall one (anything that is small)
- 2
masculinelittle one (anything that is little)
- 3
masculinelittle one; child (of humans or other animals)
- 4
masculinethe young (of a species)
Le petit du lapin s'appelle le "lapereau".
prefix
- 1
grand-; indicates a relationship of ancestry one generation younger than the noun: petite-fille (“granddaughter”), petit-neveu (“grandnephew”).
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. De taille réduite. 2. Jeune. 3. Mesquin ; médiocre. 4. Qui est peu élevé en quantité, qui n’atteint pas la mesure ordinaire.
noun: 1. Enfant.
noun: 1. Progéniture d’un animal. 2. Petit objet, petite chose. 3. Un d’atout, le plus petit, et l’un des trois bouts du jeu de tarot. 4. Cochonnet, boule légère de petit diamètre servant de but au jeu de boules.
adverb: 1. Peu.
prefix: 1. Préfixe indiquant quelque chose de petit. 2. Enfant d'un parent dont la relation de parenté est ainsi préfixée.
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 petit
- petite feminine
- petits masculine plural
- petites feminine plural
- moindre comparative
- le moindre superlative
- p’tit
- tit
- ti- informal
- p’tsit
- petsit
- pôtit
- potit
- petits- plural masculine
- petite- singular feminine
- petites- plural feminine
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce petit?
- /pə.ti/
- /p.ti/
- /pə.ti.t‿/
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to petit
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is petit in French?
petit appears 468 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).