pit
/pɪt/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.27 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
noun
The section of a marching band containing mallet percussion instruments and other large percussion instruments too large to be marched, such as the tam-tam; the front ensemble. Can also refer to the area on the sidelines where these instruments are placed.
noun
A mine.
noun
A hole or trench in the ground, excavated according to grid coordinates, so that the provenance of any feature observed and any specimen or artifact revealed may be established by precise measurement.
noun
A trading pit.
noun
A luggage hold.
Example Sentences
- "The meadow around the town is full of old pits."
- "27 Whoso diggeth a pit, shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will returne vpon him."
- "Two drivers have already gone into the pit this early in the race."
- "The exact sites of Feng and Hao have yet to be verified, but seven pits containing chariots, horses and other Zhou burial objects were discovered at Fengxi, and a concentration of Western Zhou relics and tombs was found in the area of Doumen in Changan County on the east bank of the Feng River."
- "[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […]."
- "Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-West Germanic *puti Old English pytt Middle English pit English pit From Middle English pit, pet, püt, from Old English pytt, from Proto-West Germanic *puti, from Latin puteus (“trench, pit, well”), although there are phonetic difficulties.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /pɪt/
- British English: /pɪt/
Usage
Inflected Forms
pits (plural)
pits (present, singular)
pitting (participle, present)
pitted (participle, past)
pitted (past)
PITT (alternative)
Pitt. (alternative)
Pit. (alternative)