Tight

How to spell tight

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce tight

What does tight mean?

1. adjectiveFixed, fastened, or fitted firmly so there is little or no slack or space.
2. adverbFirmly or securely; in a way that leaves no slack.

Tight in a sentence

• adjective

  The lid was so tight that she needed a cloth to twist it open.

• adverb

  Hold tight to the rail as the train pulls away.

• adjective

  These new shoes feel a little tight across the toes.

• adverb

  She closed her eyes tight before the dentist began.

Where does tight come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

Tight comes from Middle English thight, meaning 'dense', 'close-packed', or 'watertight', which appears to descend from an Old Norse word, thettr, carrying the same sense of being firmly packed together and not letting water through. The Old Norse term had close cousins across the Germanic languages, such as the Dutch dicht and the German dicht, all sharing the basic idea of something dense or closely sealed. Over time the initial 'th' sound hardened into the 't' we now spell at the front, while the 'gh' that once represented a throaty consonant fell silent, leaving a spelling that no longer matches the sound. By the sixteenth century the word had broadened from 'watertight' to the familiar meanings of firmly fixed, closely fitting, and stretched taut. The silent 'gh', a relic shared with words like night and light, is the main spelling trap, since nothing in the modern pronunciation hints that those letters belong there.

How the word is built

• tight (whole root from Middle English thight: dense, close-packed); no prefix or suffix