iota

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

Sense “jot, small quantity” in reference to a phrase in the New Testament: ”one iote or one title, shall in no wise passe from the law”,^[1] iota being the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet.

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

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -əʊtə

iota (plural iotas)

2. The ninth letter of the Greek alphabet (Ι, ι).

   As a Greek numeral, iota represents ten.

   There are twelve iotas on that page.

   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter III, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume II (The Constitution), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book IV (Varennes):

     Human ill-nature needs but some Homoiousian iota, or even the pretence of one; and will flow copiously through the eye of a needle: thus always must mortals go jargoning and fuming […] .

4. The Latin letter Ɩ (minuscule: ɩ).
5. (chiefly in the negative) A jot; a very small, insignificant quantity.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:modicum

   • 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:

     It was because Sanchez didn't have an iota of faith in what he was saying.

• (Greek-script letter names) alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron, pi, rho, sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, chi, psi, omega

• Ōita, Tai O, Oita, Toia

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

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

iota f (plural iotes)

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

• “iota”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “iota”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “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.

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta).

• IPA^(key): /jɔ.ta/

iota m (plural iota)

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

• d'un iota

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

• ôtai

From Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta).

iota m (plural iotas)

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

• “iota”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025

iota

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

• jota (obsolete)

From Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta).

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

iota m or f (invariable)

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

• -toia, aito, aitò, iato

From Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈjoː.ta]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈjɔː.t̪a]

Disyllabic in Latin, despite being trisyllabic in Ancient Greek.

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

1. iota (Greek letter)

Either indeclinable, or First-declension noun.

• “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.

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

• Rhymes: -ɔtɐ
• Hyphenation: i‧o‧ta

iota m (plural iotas)

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

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta).

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

iota f (plural iotas)

1. iota (Greek letter)

• “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], 10 December 2024