• Today's Word

Whit

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WIT

Definition

(noun) The smallest part or amount imaginable; a tiny bit.

Example

She didn’t care a whit what others thought about her unconventional career choice.

Word Origin

Middle English: probably an alteration of “wight” (meaning creature or thing), used in phrases like “not a wight” meaning “not a creature” or “nothing at all.”

Fun Fact

“Whit” almost always appears in the negative—”not a whit,” “no whit better,” “doesn’t matter a whit.” It’s the linguistic equivalent of a shrug, used to emphasize complete indifference or absence. The phrase “every whit” (meaning entirely or completely) is its rarer positive cousin, but you’ll mostly find whit keeping company with “not” and “no.” Interestingly, despite sounding similar, “whit” has no relation to “wit” (cleverness)—though caring not a whit about grammar rules might show a different kind of wit altogether.