Lit
adj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 Little. obsolete, uncountable
- 2 Colour; blee; dye; stain. UK, dialectal, uncountable
- 3 Clipping of literature. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, uncountable
"Do we have any lit homework tonight?"
- 4 Abbreviation of literature. abbreviation, alt-of, uncountable
- 5 the humanistic study of a body of literature wordnet
- 1 simple past and past participle of light (“illuminate; start a fire; etc”) form-of, participle, past
- 2 To run or light (alight). US, dialectal
"With that the kid lits off down the street, and, what do you know!"
- 3 To colour; dye. transitive
- 4 simple past and past participle of light (“alight: land, come down on”) form-of, participle, past
"[…] but finally [the bird] came to the tree and, after edging along falteringly, lit on a branch above them."
- 1 Illuminated.
"He walked down the lit corridor."
- 2 Little. obsolete
- 3 Drunk, intoxicated; under the influence of drugs or alcohol. slang
"True to my word last night, I got very lit."
- 4 Sexually aroused, (especially) visibly so. slang, usually
- 5 Exciting, captivating; fun. slang
"This party is gonna be lit."
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- 6 Excellent, fantastic; cool. slang
"Those jeans are lit."
- 1 provided with artificial light wordnet
- 2 set afire or burning wordnet
- 1 A village in Östersund municipality, Jämtland County, Sweden.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"The whole sky lit up and there was an explosion."
Etymology
Alteration of earlier light, from Middle English lighte, from Old English līhtte, first and third person singular preterite of līhtan (“to light”), by analogy with bit. More at light; compare fit (“fought”). This form was proscribed during the 18th and 19th centuries, with lighted being preferred, but is now the most common past form of light.
From Middle English lit, lut, from Old English lȳt (“little, few”), from Proto-Germanic *lūtilaz (“little, small”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewd- (“to cower, hunch over”). Cognate with Old Saxon lut (“little”), Middle High German lützen (“to make small or low, decrease”). More at little.
From Middle English lit, from Old Norse litr (“colour, dye, complexion, face, countenance”), from Proto-Germanic *wlitiz, *wlitaz (“sight, face”), from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to see”). Cognate with Icelandic litur (“colour”), Old English wlite (“brightness, appearance, form, aspect, look, countenance, beauty, splendor, adornment”), Old English wlītan (“to gaze, look, observe”).
From Middle English litten, liten, from Old Norse lita (“to colour”), from litr (“colour”). See above.
Short for literature.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.