tittle
/ˈtɪt.əl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.55 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any small dot, stroke, or diacritical mark, especially if part of a letter, or of a letter-like abbreviation; in particular, the dots over the Latin letters i and j.
verb
To chatter.
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "The foure pricks or tittles are these. The first is a full prick or period. The second is a comma or crooked tittle."
- "The words "jot" and "tittle" in this passage refer to diacritic marks, that is, dashes, dots, or commas added to a letter to accentuate the pronunciation."
- "(the page calls both "a superscript sign (hooklike)" and also a diacritical abbreviation of "er" (er) "tittles")"
- "A tittle is more or less the same thing (the dot over an i, for instance), except that it can be traced back to Medieval Latin for a little mark over or under a letter, such as an accent ague or a cedilla. I don't know whether an umlaut is one or two tittles. Maybe it's a jot and a tittle side by side."
- "I am living fast to see the time when a book that misses its tide shall be neglected, as the moon by day, or like mackerel a week after the season. No man has more nicely observed our climate than the bookseller who bought the copy of this work; he knows to a tittle what subjects will best go off in a dry year, and which it is proper to expose foremost when the weather-glass is fallen to much rain."
Etymology
From Middle English tytle, titel, titele, from Anglo-Norman titil, titule and Medieval Latin titulus (“small stroke, diacritical mark, accent”), from Latin titulus (“title”). Doublet of tilde, titer/titre, title, titlo, and titulus.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈtɪt.əl/
- British English: /ˈtɪt.əl/