Item

How to spell item

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce item

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does item mean?

1. nounA single, distinct thing on a list, in a collection, or among a set of objects.

Item in a sentence

• Each item on the invoice was priced separately.

• She crossed off the last item on her shopping list.

Where does item come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from the Latin adverb item, which meant 'likewise', 'also', or 'in the same way'. In medieval account books, inventories, and legal documents, clerks would begin each new entry in a list with the word item, much as we might write 'also' before adding another point. Because the word stood at the head of every separate entry, readers gradually came to treat item itself as the name for the thing being listed, and by the 1500s it had hardened into an English noun meaning a single member of a list or collection. The original adverb survives faintly in the slightly old-fashioned use of 'item' to introduce successive points in a formal list. The spelling has barely changed since Latin, which is why item keeps its tidy, regular form and rarely trips writers up.

How the word is built

• item (Latin adverb meaning 'likewise', used to head each entry in a list; later treated as a single noun)