Meaning

(typography) 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..

Definitions by Sense

1. (typography) 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.
2. (by extension) A small, insignificant amount (of something); a modicum or speck.
3. (Scotland) To chatter.

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 page calls both "a superscript sign (hooklike)" and also a diacritical abbreviation of "er" (er) "tittles")

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.

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.

Word Forms

• tittles
• tittling
• tittled

Synonyms for tittle

Related Words

When Should You Use Tittle?

Use tittle when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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