iota

See also: Iota, IOTA, ióta, ìota, and íota

English

WOTD – 8 June 2008

Ancient Greek Alphabet

← theta		→ kappa
Ι ι Ancient Greek: ἰῶτα
Wikipedia article on iota

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta), ultimately from Proto-Semitic *yad- (“hand”). Doublet of yodh.

• (jot): In reference to a phrase in the New Testament: "until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law" (Mt 5:18), iota being the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /aɪˈəʊtə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /aɪˈoʊtə/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊtə

Noun

iota (plural iotas)

1. The ninth letter of the Greek alphabet.

   As a Greek numeral, iota represents ten.

   There are twelve iotas on that page.

2. A jot; a very small, insignificant quantity.
   • 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC:

     They never depart an iota from the authentic formulas of tyranny and usurpation.

   • 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 99:

     His expression had not changed one iota except perhaps for an additional tightening of his lips.

   • 1982, John Cleve, Spaceways #7: The Manhuntress, page xviii. 194:

     [E]very iota of its gravitic power.

   • 2019 August 26, qntm, “Unthreaded”, in SCP Foundation‎^[1], archived from the original on 2 January 2024:

     Around dawn, Eastern Standard Time, Sanchez announced that it was no longer possible for ω-0 to stay together as a single entity. He split the remains of the Task Force into three. Ulrich and the malformed memory of Wheeler were assigned to the same subteam. Sanchez gave final instructions to continue to search for Bart Hughes, or any kind of ally among the living, be they Foundation or GOI or civilian. But the instructions were confusing and incomplete. It was because Sanchez didn't have an iota of faith in what he was saying. He couldn't see a way to the far side of this. It was about little more than survival now. It was about figuring out terms on which to face death.

Synonyms

• (jot): See Thesaurus:modicum

Derived terms

• iota adscript
• iota subscript

Translations

Greek letter

• Aghwan: 𐔺𐕒𐔳 (yod)
• Arabic: إِيُوتَا f (ʔiyūtā)
• Asturian: iota (ast)
• Catalan: iota (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 約塔 / 约塔 (zh) (yāotǎ)

• Czech: jota f, iota f, ióta f
• Dutch: jota (nl) c
• Esperanto: joto (eo)
• Faroese: jota n
• Finnish: ioota (fi)
• French: iota (fr) m
• Galician: iota (gl) m
• Georgian: იოტა (ioṭa)
• German: Jota (de) n
• Gothic: 𐌾𐍉𐍄𐌰 n (jōta)
• Greek: γιώτα (el) n (gióta), ιώτα (el) n (ióta)

  Ancient: ἰῶτα n (iôta)

• Hungarian: ióta (hu)
• Ido: iota (io)
• Interlingua: iota
• Italian: iota (it)
• Japanese: イオタ (ja) (iota), イオータ (iōta)
• Korean: 요타 (ko) (yota)
• Latin: iota (la) n
• Malay: iota
• Polish: jota (pl) f
• Portuguese: iota (pt) m
• Romanian: iota
• Russian: йо́та (ru) f (jóta), ио́та (ru) f (ióta) (dated)
• Slovak: jota f
• Spanish: iota (es) f
• Tagalog: iyota
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

small quantity

• Aghwan: 𐔺𐕒𐔳 (yod)
• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian:

  Old Armenian: յովտ (yovt)

• Catalan: iota (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: jota (nl) c
• Finnish: hitunen (fi), hiven (fi)
• Georgian: იოტა (ioṭa), ერთი ბეწო (erti bec̣o)
• Hebrew: קוֹצוֹ שֶׁל יוֹד (he) m (qotzó shel yod)
• Hungarian: jotta (hu)
• Ido: iota (io)
• Interlingua: iota
• Italian: briciolo (it) m
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: pilus m
• Polish: jota (pl) f
• Portuguese: pingo (pt) m
• Russian: йо́та (ru) f (jóta), ио́та (ru) f (ióta)
• Spanish: poco (es)
• Swabian: Muggaseggele n
• Swedish: jota (sv) n, dugg (sv) n, dyft (sv) n, smula (sv) c
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

Anagrams

• Ōita, Tai O, Oita, Toia

Catalan

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta). Doublet of jota.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈjɔ.tə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈjɔ.ta]
• Hyphenation: io‧ta

Noun

iota f (plural iotes)

1. iota (Greek letter)
2. iota (small amount)

Further reading

• “iota” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “iota”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “iota” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “iota” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jɔ.ta/

Noun

iota m (plural iota)

1. iota (Greek letter)
2. jot, iota (negligible amount)

Derived terms

• d’un iota

Further reading

• “iota”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• ôtai

Galician

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta).

Noun

iota m (plural iotas)

1. iota (Greek letter)
2. The name of the Latin-script letter J/j.

Further reading

• “iota”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2024

Hawaiian

Noun

iota

1. The name of the Latin-script letter J/j.

Italian

Alternative forms

• jota (obsolete)

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈjɔ.ta/
• Rhymes: -ɔta
• Hyphenation: iò‧ta

Noun

iota m or f (invariable)

1. the name of the Greek-script letter Ι/ι; iota
2. (obsolete) Synonym of i lunga

Anagrams

• -toia, aito, aitò, iato

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈi̯oː.ta/, [ˈi̯oːt̪ä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈjo.ta/, [ˈjɔːt̪ä]

Disyllabic in Latin, despite being trisyllabic in Ancient Greek.

Noun

iōta n (indeclinable) or iōta f (genitive iōtae); first declension

1. iota (Greek letter)

Declension

Either indeclinable, or First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	iōta	iōtae
genitive	iōtae	iōtārum
dative	iōtae	iōtīs
accusative	iōtam	iōtās
ablative	iōtā	iōtīs
vocative	iōta	iōtae

References

• “iota”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• iota in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta). Doublet of jota.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈjɔ.tɐ/

• Rhymes: -ɔtɐ
• Hyphenation: i‧o‧ta

Noun

iota m (plural iotas)

1. iota (the ninth Greek letter: ι, Ι)

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /iˈota/ [iˈo.t̪a], /ˈʝota/ [ˈɟ͡ʝo.t̪a]

• IPA^(key): (everywhere but Argentina and Uruguay) /iˈota/ [iˈo.t̪a], /ˈʝota/ [ˈɟ͡ʝo.t̪a]
• IPA^(key): (Argentina and Uruguay) /iˈota/ [iˈo.t̪a], /ˈjota/ [ˈjo.t̪a]

• Rhymes: -ota
• Syllabification: i‧o‧ta, io‧ta

Noun

iota f (plural iotas)

1. iota (Greek letter)

Further reading

• “iota”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10