Digit

How to spell digit

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce digit

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does digit mean?

1. nounAny of the single numbers from zero to nine used to write larger numbers.
2. nounA finger or toe on the hand or foot.

Digit in a sentence

• The bank asked her to read out the final digit of her account number.

• The doctor examined each digit on her hand for signs of swelling.

• Each digit in the postcode helps the sorting machine route the letter.

• Frostbite can damage every digit on an exposed hand.

Where does digit come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin digitus, which literally meant a finger or a toe. Because people have counted on their fingers since long before writing existed, the same word came to stand for the single numerals zero through nine, the building blocks you could tally on one hand. English borrowed digit in the late fourteenth century, at first chiefly in the anatomical sense and the counting sense together. Over time the numerical meaning grew dominant, which is why we now speak of a four-digit code, while the original bodily sense survives in medicine and biology when doctors refer to fingers and toes. The same Latin root also underlies the modern word 'digital', a reminder that our high-tech vocabulary still points back to the act of counting on fingers.

How the word is built

• digit (from Latin digitus: finger, toe)