bit

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See also Bit, and a bit

Contents

English [edit]

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Wikipedia

Pronunciation [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

From Old English bita and bite - all from Proto-Germanic *bitô, from Proto-Indo-European *bheid- (“to split”).

Noun [edit]

bit (plural bits)

  1. A piece of metal placed in a horse's mouth and connected to reins to direct the animal.
    Horses hate having bits put in their mouth.
  2. A rotary cutting tool fitted to a drill, used to make holes.
  3. (US) An eighth of a dollar. Note that there is no coin minted worth 12.5 cents. (When this term first came into use, the Spanish 8 reales coin was widely used as a dollar equivalent, and thus the 1 real coin was equivalent to 12.5 cents.)
    A quarter is two bits.
  4. (dated, UK) A coin of a specified value. (Also used for a nine-pence coin in the British Caribbean.)
    A threepenny bit.
  5. A small amount of something.
    There were bits of paper all over the floor.
    Does your leg still hurt? / Just a bit now.
    I have done my bit, I expect you to do yours.
  6. Specifically, a small amount of time.
    I'll be there in a bit, I need to take care of something first.
    He was here just a bit ago, but it looks like he's stepped out.
  7. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought): A portion of something.
    I'd like a big bit of cake, please.
  8. (slang) A prison sentence, especially a short one.
    • 1904, The Anamosa prison press, volume 7, Iowa. Colony of Detention at Anamosa: 
      Had it not been for the influence of Mrs. Booth and Hope Hall I should still be grafting or doing a bit in some stir
    • 1916, Thomas Mott Osborne. Warden, Sing Sing Prison, N. Y., “Prison Reform”, The Journal of sociologic medicine, volume 17, page 407: 
      Before doing that I am going to tell you what was the result of my own incarceration, because I presume it may not be a secret to you, that I have done a "bit" myself, not the "bit" which the prosecuting attorney was so anxious to have me do.
    • 1994, Odie Hawkins, Lost Angeles, page 158:
      Chino didn't make me think of Dachau or that notorious joint in Angola, Louisiana, where a brother who had done a bit there told me how they used to cut the grass on the front lawn with their fingernails.
    • 2001, Andrew H. Vachss, Pain management:
      Not counting the days—that's okay for a county-time slap, but it'll make you crazy if you've got years to go on a felony bit.
  9. An excerpt of material from a composition or show.
    His bit about video games was not nearly as entertaining as the other segments of his show.
Synonyms [edit]
Derived terms [edit]
terms derived from bit (noun)
Translations [edit]
metal in horse's mouth
rotary cutting tool
eighth of a dollar
coin — see coin
small amount of something
small amount of time
portion
slang: prison sentence
excerpt from stand-up repertoire
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Adverb [edit]

bit (not comparable)

  1. To a small extent; in a small amount (usually with "a").
    That's a bit too sweet.

Etymology 2 [edit]

See bite

Verb [edit]

bit

  1. Simple past of bite.
    Your dog bit me!
  2. (US, informal) (UK, archaic) Past participle of bite

Adjective [edit]

bit

  1. (Should we delete(+) this sense?) (colloquial) bitten.
    Even though he's bit, of course the zombies would still chase him.
  2. (only in combination) Having been bitten.
    • 1984, Field & Stream, volume 89, number July, page 24: 
      Fortunately, someone who gets skeeter-bit this much may develop an immunity to the skeeter's saliva
    • 1992, Robert Lewis Taylor, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters:
      Only the year before, the conjure man had brought in the Jackson County madstone, from way over in Illinois, for a white peddler that had been dog-bit, and the man went ahead and died just the same
    • 1998, Adele Griffin, Rainy Season, page 121:
      He will not — he'll tell you not to be loco, climbing up trees late at night when you'll get bug-bit to death plus you can't see anything

Etymology 3 [edit]

Coined by John Tukey in 1946 as an abbreviation of binary digit, probably influenced by connotations of “small portion”.[1][2] First used in print 1948 by Claude Shannon. Compare byte and nybble.

Noun [edit]

bit (plural bits)

  1. (mathematics, computing) A binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0.
  2. (computing) The smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit.
  3. (information theory, cryptography) Any datum that may take on one of exactly two values.
  4. (information theory) A unit of measure for information entropy.
    • 2011 May 17, Lisa Grossman, “Entropy Is Universal Rule of Language”, Wired Science, accessed on 2012-09-26:
      The researchers found that the original texts spanned a variety of entropy values in different languages, reflecting differences in grammar and structure.
      But strangely, the difference in entropy between the original, ordered text and the randomly scrambled text was constant across languages. This difference is a way to measure the amount of information encoded in word order, Montemurro says. The amount of information lost when they scrambled the text was about 3.5 bits per word.
Synonyms [edit]
  • (smallest unit of storage): b
Derived terms [edit]
terms derived from bit (noun)
See also [edit]
Translations [edit]
binary digit
smallest unit of storage
datum that may take on one of exactly two values
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Statistics [edit]

Anagrams [edit]

Czech [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

Etymology [edit]

Borrowed from English bit, from binary digit.

Noun [edit]

bit m

  1. (computing) bit

Declension [edit]

    declension of bit
singular plural
nominative bit bity
genitive bitu bitů
dative bitu bitům
accusative bit bity
vocative bite bity
locative bitu bitech
instrumental bitem bity

Derived terms [edit]

Dutch [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

bit n (plural bitten, diminutive bitje)

  1. bit (for a working animal)
  2. bit (rotary cutting tool)

Noun [edit]

bit m (plural bits, diminutive bitje)

  1. bit (binary digit)
  2. bit (unit of storage)
  3. bit (datum with two possible values)

French [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From English

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

bit m (plural bits)

  1. (computing) bit

Lojban [edit]

Rafsi [edit]

bit

  1. rafsi of birti.

Nigerian Pidgin [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From English beat.

Verb [edit]

bit

  1. beat

Old Irish [edit]

Verb [edit]

bit

  1. third-person plural future of is

Serbo-Croatian [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

From bȉti (“to be”)

Pronunciation [edit]

  • IPA: /bîːt/

Noun [edit]

bȋt m (Cyrillic spelling би̑т)

  1. essence
Declension [edit]
    declension of bit
singular plural
nominative bȋt biti
genitive biti bítī
dative biti bitima
accusative bit biti
vocative biti biti
locative biti bitima
instrumental biti bitima

Etymology 2 [edit]

From English bit

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

bȉt m (Cyrillic spelling би̏т)

  1. (computing) bit
Declension [edit]
    declension of bit
singular plural
nominative bȉt bìtovi
genitive bita bitova
dative bitu bitovima
accusative bit bitove
vocative bite bitovi
locative bitu bitovima
instrumental bitom bitovima

Spanish [edit]

Noun [edit]

bit m (plural bits)

  1. bit (binary digit)

Swedish [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

Etymology [edit]

Noun definitions 2 and 4: From English bit, from binary digit.

Noun [edit]

bit c

  1. bit (small piece)
  2. bit (portion)
  3. bit (binary digit)
  4. bit (unit of storage)

Declension [edit]

Declension of bit
singular plural
Common indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative bit biten bitar bitarna
genitive bits bitens bitars bitarnas

Related terms [edit]

Verb [edit]

bit

  1. imperative of bita.

Turkish [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Old Turkic bit, from Proto-Turkic *bɨt (“louse”).

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

bit

  1. (computing) bit
  2. (zoology) louse

Declension [edit]

declension of bit
singular (tekil) plural (çoğul)
nominative (yalın) bit bitler
definite accusative (belirtme) biti bitleri
dative (yönelme) bite bitlere
locative (bulunma) bitte bitlerde
ablative (çıkma) bitten bitlerden
genitive (tamlayan) bitin bitlerin
possessive forms of bit
nominative singular plural
benim (my) bitim bitlerim
senin (your) bitin bitlerin
onun (his/her/its) biti bitleri
bizim (our) bitimiz bitlerimiz
sizin (your) bitiniz bitleriniz
onların (their) bitleri bitleri
accusative singular plural
benim (my) bitimi bitlerimi
senin (your) bitini bitlerini
onun (his/her/its) bitini bitlerini
bizim (our) bitimizi bitlerimizi
sizin (your) bitinizi bitlerinizi
onların (their) bitlerini bitlerini
dative singular plural
benim (my) bitime bitlerime
senin (your) bitine bitlerine
onun (his/her/its) bitine bitlerine
bizim (our) bitimize bitlerimize
sizin (your) bitinize bitlerinize
onların (their) bitlerine bitlerine
locative singular plural
benim (my) bitimde bitlerimde
senin (your) bitinde bitlerinde
onun (his/her/its) bitinde bitlerinde
bizim (our) bitimizde bitlerimizde
sizin (your) bitinizde bitlerinizde
onların (their) bitlerinde bitlerinde
ablative singular plural
benim (my) bitimden bitlerimden
senin (your) bitinden bitlerinden
onun (his/her/its) bitinden bitlerinden
bizim (our) bitimizden bitlerimizden
sizin (your) bitinizden bitlerinizden
onların (their) bitlerinden bitlerinden
genitive singular plural
benim (my) bitimin bitlerimin
senin (your) bitinin bitlerinin
onun (his/her/its) bitinin bitlerinin
bizim (our) bitimizin bitlerimizin
sizin (your) bitinizin bitlerinizin
onların (their) bitlerinin bitlerinin
predicative forms of bit
simple present singular plural
ben (I am) bitim bitlerim*
sen (you are) bitsin bitlersin*
o (he/she/it is) bit / bittir bitler* / bitlerdir*
biz (we are) bitiz bitleriz
siz (you are) bitsiniz bitlersiniz
onlar (they are) bitler bitlerdir
simple past singular plural
ben (I was) bittim bitlerdim*
sen (you were) bittin bitlerdin*
o (he/she/it was) bitti bitlerdi*
biz (we were) bittik bitlerdik
siz (you were) bittiniz bitlerdiniz
onlar (they were) bittiler bitlerdi
indirect / unwitnessed past singular plural
ben (I was) bitmişim bitlermişim*
sen (you were) bitmişsin bitlermişsin*
o (he/she/it was) bitmiş bitlermiş*
biz (we were) bitmişiz bitlermişiz
siz (you were) bitmişsiniz bitlermişsiniz
onlar (they were) bitmişler bitlermiş
*Not used, but perhaps rarely - chiefly grammatical formations.

Note: Plural forms are not used with adjectives.

Derived terms [edit]

See also [edit]

Verb [edit]

bit

  1. end (imperative - see "bitmek")
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