Cite

How to spell cite

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce cite

What does cite mean?

1. verbTo quote or refer to a source, authority, or example as evidence or justification.

Cite in a sentence

• The lawyer chose to cite an earlier ruling to support the appeal.

• Please cite every source you used in the final report.

Where does cite come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin citare, meaning 'to summon', 'to call forth', or 'to set in motion', which was a frequentative form of ciere, 'to put into rapid motion' or 'to rouse'. English borrowed it through Old French citer in the 1400s, at first in the legal sense of summoning a person to appear before a court. From that idea of calling someone forward, the meaning widened to calling forward a passage, an authority, or an example as evidence in support of an argument. The same Latin root surfaces in relatives like 'excite' (to rouse out), 'incite' (to rouse on), and 'recite' (to call out again). The spelling trap is purely aural: cite sounds exactly like the noun 'sight' and 'site', so the soft c and silent final e must be remembered from the Latin citare rather than the sound.

How the word is built

• cit- (from Latin citare: to summon, call, set in motion)
• -e

Words that sound like cite

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• sight: The faculty of seeing, or something that is seen or worth looking at.
• site: A particular place or piece of ground where something is located, built, or happens.