iota

See also: Iota, IOTA, ióta, ìota, and íota

English

WOTD – 8 June 2008

Ancient Greek alphabet

← theta		→ kappa
Ι ι Ancient Greek: ἰῶτα
Wikipedia article on iota

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta), ultimately from Proto-Semitic *yad- (“hand”). Doublet of jot and yodh.

Sense “jot, small quantity” in reference to a phrase in the New Testament: ”one iote or one title, shall in no wise passe from the law”, iota being the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /aɪˈəʊtə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /aɪˈoʊtə/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Audio (Australia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊtə

Noun

iota (plural iotas)

2. The ninth letter of the Greek alphabet (Ι, ι).

   As a Greek numeral, iota represents ten.

   There are twelve iotas on that page.

   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter III, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume II (The Constitution), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book IV (Varennes):

     Human ill-nature needs but some Homoiousian iota, or even the pretence of one; and will flow copiously through the eye of a needle: thus always must mortals go jargoning and fuming […] .

4. The Latin letter Ɩ (minuscule: ɩ).
5. (chiefly in the negative) A jot; a very small, insignificant quantity.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:modicum

   • 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC:

     They never depart an iota from the authentic formulas of tyranny and usurpation.

   • 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 99:

     His expression had not changed one iota except perhaps for an additional tightening of his lips.

   • 1982, John Cleve, Spaceways #7: The Manhuntress, page xviii. 194:

     [E]very iota of its gravitic power.

   • 2019 August 26, qntm, “Unthreaded”, in SCP Foundation‎^[1], archived from the original on 2 January 2024:

     It was because Sanchez didn't have an iota of faith in what he was saying.

Derived terms

• iota adscript
• iotacism
• iota subscript

Translations

Greek letter

• Aghwan: 𐔺𐕒𐔳 (yod)
• Arabic: إِيُوتَا f (ʔiyūtā)
• Asturian: iota (ast)
• Catalan: iota (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 約塔 / 约塔 (zh) (yāotǎ)

• Czech: jota f, iota f, ióta f
• Dutch: jota (nl) c
• Esperanto: joto (eo)
• Faroese: jota n
• Finnish: ioota (fi)
• French: iota (fr) m
• Galician: iota (gl) m
• Georgian: იოტა (ioṭa)
• German: Jota (de) n
• Gothic: 𐌾𐍉𐍄𐌰 n (jōta)
• Greek: γιώτα (el) n (gióta), ιώτα (el) n (ióta)

  Ancient Greek: ἰῶτα n (iôta)

• Hungarian: ióta (hu)
• Ido: iota (io)
• Interlingua: iota
• Italian: iota (it)
• Japanese: イオタ (ja) (iota), イオータ (iōta)
• Korean: 요타 (ko) (yota)
• Latin: iota (la) n
• Malay: iota
• Polish: jota (pl) f
• Portuguese: iota (pt) m
• Romanian: iota
• Russian: йо́та (ru) f (jóta), ио́та (ru) f (ióta) (dated)
• Slovak: jota f
• Spanish: iota (es) f
• Tagalog: iyota
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

small quantity

• Aghwan: 𐔺𐕒𐔳 (yod)
• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian:

  Old Armenian: յովտ (yovt)

• Catalan: iota (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: jota (nl) c
• Finnish: hitunen (fi), hiven (fi)
• Georgian: იოტა (ioṭa), ერთი ბეწო (erti bec̣o)
• German:

  Swabian: Muggaseggele n

• Hebrew: קוֹצוֹ שֶׁל יוֹד (he) m (qotzó shel yod), שֶׁמֶץ (he) (shémets)
• Hungarian: jotta (hu)
• Ido: iota (io)
• Interlingua: iota
• Italian: briciolo (it) m
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: pilus m
• Polish: jota (pl) f
• Portuguese: pingo (pt) m
• Russian: йо́та (ru) f (jóta), ио́та (ru) f (ióta)
• Spanish: poco (es)
• Swedish: jota (sv) n, dugg (sv) n, dyft (sv) n, smula (sv) c
• Turkish:

  Ottoman Turkish: پارچه (parça), آوج (avuc)

• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

See also

• (Greek-script letter names) alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron, pi, rho, sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, chi, psi, omega

Anagrams

• Ōita, Tai O, Oita, Toia

Catalan

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta). Doublet of jota.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [ˈjo̞.tə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Central) [ˈjɔ.tə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia, Northwestern) [ˈjɔ.ta]
• Hyphenation: io‧ta

Noun

iota f (plural iotes)

1. iota (Greek letter)
2. iota (small amount)

Further reading

• “iota”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “iota”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “iota” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “iota”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jɔ.ta/

Noun

iota m (invariable)

1. iota (Greek letter)
2. jot, iota (negligible amount)

Derived terms

• d'un iota

Further reading

• “iota”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Anagrams

• ôtai

Galician

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta).

Noun

iota m (plural iotas)

1. iota (Greek letter)
2. The name of the Latin script letter J/j.

Further reading

• “iota”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026

Hawaiian

Noun

iota

1. The name of the Latin script letter J/j.

Italian

Alternative forms

• jota (obsolete)

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈjɔ.ta/
• Rhymes: -ɔta
• Hyphenation: iò‧ta

Noun

iota m or f (invariable)

1. the name of the Greek-script letter Ι/ι; iota
2. (obsolete) synonym of i lunga

Anagrams

• -toia, aito, aitò, iato

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈjoː.ta]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈjɔː.ta]

Disyllabic in Latin, despite being trisyllabic in Ancient Greek.

Noun

iōta n (indeclinable) or iōta f (genitive iōtae); first declension

1. iota (Greek letter)

Declension

Either indeclinable, or First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	iōta	iōtae
genitive	iōtae	iōtārum
dative	iōtae	iōtīs
accusative	iōtam	iōtās
ablative	iōtā	iōtīs
vocative	iōta	iōtae

References

• “iota”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “iota”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta). Doublet of jota.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈjɔ.tɐ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈjɔ.tɐ/

• Rhymes: -ɔtɐ
• Hyphenation: i‧o‧ta

Noun

iota m (plural iotas)

1. iota (the ninth Greek letter: ι, Ι)

Further reading

• “iota”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /iˈota/ [iˈo.t̪a], /ˈʝota/ [ˈɟ͡ʝo.t̪a]

• IPA^(key): /iˈota/ [iˈo.t̪a], /ˈʝota/ [ˈɟ͡ʝo.t̪a] (everywhere but Pampas and southern Argentina and Uruguay)
• IPA^(key): /iˈota/ [iˈo.t̪a], /ˈjota/ [ˈjo.t̪a] (Pampas and southern Argentina, Uruguay)

• Rhymes: -ota
• Syllabification: i‧o‧ta, io‧ta

Noun

iota f (plural iotas)

1. iota (Greek letter)

Further reading

• “iota”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025