it
Meaning
-
- The third-person singular neuter personal pronoun used to refer to an inanimate object, abstract entity, or non-human living thing.
- A third-person singular personal pronoun used to refer to a baby or child, especially of unknown gender.
- (obsolete) An affectionate third-person singular personal pronoun.
- A third-person singular personal pronoun used to refer to an animate referent who is transgender or non-binary.
- Used to refer to someone being identified, often on the phone, but not limited to this situation.
- The impersonal pronoun, used without referent as the subject of an impersonal verb or statement (known as the dummy pronoun, dummy it or weather it).
- The impersonal pronoun, used without referent, or with unstated but contextually implied referent, in various short idioms or expressions.
- The impersonal pronoun, used without referent, or with unstated but contextually implied referent, in various short idioms or expressions.
- The impersonal pronoun, used without referent, or with unstated but contextually implied referent, in various short idioms or expressions.
- Sex appeal, especially that which goes beyond physical appearance.
- The impersonal pronoun, used as a placeholder for a delayed subject, or less commonly, object; known as the dummy pronoun (according to some definitions), anticipatory it or, more formally in linguistics, a syntactic expletive. The delayed subject is commonly a to-infinitive, a gerund, or a noun clause introduced by a subordinating conjunction.
- All or the end; something after which there is no more.
- (obsolete) Followed by an omitted and understood relative pronoun: That which; what.
Frequency
Pronounced as (IPA)
/ɪt/
Etymology
From Middle English it, hit ( > dialectal English hit (“it”)), from Old English hit (“it”), from Proto-West Germanic *hit, from Proto-Germanic *hit (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (“this, here”). Cognate with West Frisian it (“it”), Saterland Frisian et, 't (“it”), Dutch het (“it”), Low German it (“it”), German es (“it”). Compare also Gothic 𐌹𐍄𐌰 (ita, “it”), Latin cis (“on this”), hic (“this”). More at he.
Cognate with English
hit
Cognate with Western Frisian
it
Cognate with Dutch
het
Cognate with German
es
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