Tic

How to spell tic

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce tic

What does tic mean?

1. nounA sudden, repeated, involuntary movement or spasm of a muscle, often in the face, or a habitual nervous mannerism.

Tic in a sentence

• A nervous tic made his left eyelid flutter during the interview.

• The neurologist explained that the tic was harmless and would fade with rest.

Where does tic come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English in the early 1800s straight from French tic, which described a sudden involuntary jerk of the muscles, especially in the face. French had probably picked it up from the Italian ticchio, meaning a whim, a fad, or a nervous habit, and some trace it further back to an imitative root suggesting a quick twitching movement. It first appeared in medical writing as part of the phrase tic douloureux, literally a painful twitch, used for a stabbing facial nerve pain. Over time tic broadened from that clinical sense into the general idea of any repeated, uncontrollable spasm or quirk of behaviour. The spelling trap is its near-twin tick (the insect, the clock sound, the checkmark): tic keeps the bare three letters with no final k, exactly as French left it.

How the word is built

• tic (whole word; from French tic, a twitch, not built from prefix or suffix)

Words that sound like tic

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

• tick: A small written mark used to show that something is correct, present, or completed.