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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

jot.

The smallest letter or stroke of any writing; an iota.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/d͡ʒɒt/Received-Pronunciation[d͡ʒɔʔ]Multicultural-London-English/d͡ʒɑt/General-American

  1. The smallest letter or stroke of any writing; an iota.

  2. A small, or the smallest, amount of a thing; a bit, a whit.

    broadly
    He didn’t care a jot for his work.

  3. A small, or the smallest, amount of a thing; a bit, a whit. An instant, a moment.

    broadly · obsolete

  4. A brief and hurriedly written note.

Where this word comes from

The noun is borrowed from Latin iōta (“the letter iota of the Ancient Greek alphabet”), from Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta, “ninth letter of the Ancient Greek alphabet; (figurative) very small part of writing, jot”), from Phoenician 𐤉 (y‬, “tenth letter of the Phoenician abjad, yodh”). Doublet of iota and yodh. Etymology 1, noun sense 3 (“brief and hurriedly written note”) is derived from the verb. The verb is probably borrowed from Scots jot, from English jot (noun): see above.

verb/d͡ʒɒt/Received-Pronunciation[d͡ʒɔʔ]Multicultural-London-English/d͡ʒɑt/General-American

  1. Chiefly followed by down: to write (something) quickly; to make a brief note of (something).

    transitive
    Tell me your order so I can jot it down.
Where this word comes from

The noun is borrowed from Latin iōta (“the letter iota of the Ancient Greek alphabet”), from Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta, “ninth letter of the Ancient Greek alphabet; (figurative) very small part of writing, jot”), from Phoenician 𐤉 (y‬, “tenth letter of the Phoenician abjad, yodh”). Doublet of iota and yodh. Etymology 1, noun sense 3 (“brief and hurriedly written note”) is derived from the verb. The verb is probably borrowed from Scots jot, from English jot (noun): see above.

verb/d͡ʒɒt/Received-Pronunciation[d͡ʒɔʔ]Multicultural-London-English/d͡ʒɑt/General-American

  1. To jerk or jolt (something); to jog.

    dialectal · transitive
Where this word comes from

The verb is possibly onomatopoeic, suggesting a jerking motion. The noun is derived from the verb.

noun/d͡ʒɒt/Received-Pronunciation[d͡ʒɔʔ]Multicultural-London-English/d͡ʒɑt/General-American

  1. A jerk, a jolt.

    obsolete · rare
Where this word comes from

The verb is possibly onomatopoeic, suggesting a jerking motion. The noun is derived from the verb.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.