it
/ɪt/ pronoun, determiner, noun, adjective
Also a form of itself
Forms itself its they them his hit i' itt 't
- pronoun The third-person singular neuter personal pronoun used to refer to an inanimate object, abstract entity, or non-human living thing. “Take this book and put it on the shelf.”
- pronoun A third-person singular personal pronoun used to refer to a baby or child, especially of unknown gender. “She took the baby and held it in her arms.”
- pronoun (rare) A third-person singular pronoun used to refer to an unspecified person.
- pronoun (obsolete) An affectionate third-person singular personal pronoun.
- pronoun (chiefly derogatory, offensive) A third-person singular personal pronoun used to refer to an animate referent who is transgender or non-binary.
- pronoun Refers to someone being identified, often on the phone, but not limited to this situation. “It's me, John.”
- pronoun 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). “It is nearly 10 o’clock.”
- pronoun The impersonal pronoun, used without referent, or with unstated but contextually implied referent, in various short idioms or expressions.
- determiner (obsolete) Its.
- noun One who is neither a he nor a she; a creature; a dehumanized being.
- noun The person who chases and tries to catch the other players in the playground game of tag. “In the next game, Adam and Tom will be it…”
- noun (UK) A game of tag. “Let's play it at breaktime.”
- noun (informal) A desirable characteristic, as being fashionable. “Man, he's really got it.”
- noun (informal, chiefly in the negative) Something desirable or suitable. “Bro, that shirt is not it.”
- noun (informal) Sexual intercourse. “OMG, they were doing it in the storage room.”
- noun (informal) Sex appeal. “She really has it going on.”
- adjective (colloquial) Most fashionable, popular, or in vogue.
- noun A biological force that inhabits living beings, according to the vitalist approach of Georg Groddeck.
- noun The Id, in Freudian psychology.
Synonyms
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 (“here; here”).
Cognate with Yola it, t', yt (“it”), North Frisian at, et, 't (“it”), Saterland Frisian et (“it”), West Frisian it (“it”), Dutch het (“it”), Luxembourgish hatt (“her, it, she”), Elfdalian eð (“it”); also Primitive Irish ᚕᚑᚔ (koi, “here”), Latin cis (“short of; before”), hic (“this”), Greek εκείνος (ekeínos, “that; those”). Compare Cimbrian es, is, 's, 'z (“it”), German es, 's (“it, there”), Mòcheno and Vilamovian s (“it”), Yiddish עס (es, “it”), Faroese ið (“that, which, who”), Gothic 𐌹𐍄𐌰 (ita, “it”), which instead descends from Proto-Germanic *it (“it”). More at he.
Webster’s 1913
- pronoun The neuter pronoun of the third person, corresponding to the masculine pronoun he and the feminine she, and having the same plural (they, their of theirs, them).
- pronoun As a substance for any noun of the neuter gender; as, here is the book, take it home.
Etymology [OE. it, hit, AS. hit; cf. D. het. sq. root181. See He.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “it”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details