Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

little by little

Word Rarity Common

Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.42 in modern English

Syllables: lit-tle by lit-tle
IPA

19

Scrabble Score

14

Letters

3

Syllables

6

Unique Chars

Meaning

adv

A small amount at a time.

Example Sentences

""[…]Everything else has gone from me, little by little, but I have kept this.[…]""
"Little by little his head cleared, and he began once more to take a personal interest in the battle."
"Cos little by little / We gave you everything / You ever dreamed of. / Little by little / The wheels of your life / Have slowly fallen off."
"Iraq's government has been removing blast walls little by little since late 2008, trying to restore a semblance of normalcy to this bunker city."
"What came instead over the following years were many of the same projects delivered individually to little-by-little add capacity."

Synonyms

by inches by small degrees piecemeal bit by bit in stages

Questions

What does little by little mean?: A small amount at a time.

How to pronounce little by little

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “little by little”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “little by little”.
Repeat and practice — Say “little by little” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.