English

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /-aɪt/

Suffix

-ite

1. (sometimes pejorative) Used to form nouns denoting followers or adherents of a specified person, idea, doctrine, movement, etc.

   Adamsite, Campbellite, Jacobite, laborite, Mansonite, Reaganite, Thatcherite

2. Used to form nouns denoting descendants of a specified historical person, especially a biblical figure.

   Ephraimite, Hamite, Japhetite, Lamanite

   • 1830, Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon, translation of original by Mormon, 4 Nephi 1:17:

     There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God.

3. (chiefly US) Used to form demonyms.

   Brooklynite, Jerusalemite, New Jerseyite, Seattleite, Sydneyite, Wyomingite

4. Used to form nouns denoting rocks or minerals.

   andalusite, anorthosite, anthracite, erythrite, forsterite, graphite, hawleyite, titanite

5. Used to form nouns denoting fossil organisms.

   ammonite, belemnite

6. (biology) Used to form nouns denoting segments or components of the body or an organ of the body.

   dendrite, somite

7. Used to form nouns denoting the product of a specified process or a commercially manufactured product.

   Bakelite, cordite, dynamite, ebonite, metabolite, vulcanite

8. (chemistry) Used to form names of certain chemical compounds, especially salts or esters of acids whose name ends in -ous.

   bromite, chlorite, iodite, phosphite, sulfite

Translations

Etymology 2

From Latin past participles in -ītus, of verbs in -īre, -ĕre, -ēre, partly via Old French.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) either IPA^(key): /-aɪt/ or IPA^(key): /-ɪt/

Suffix

-ite

1. forming adjectives

Derived terms

See also

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /it/

Etymology

Via Latin -ītēs from Ancient Greek -ίτης ‎(-ítēs).

Suffix

-ite

1. (medicine) -itis
2. -ite (relating to following someone or something)
3. (mineralogy) -ite

Italian

Suffix

-ite

1. Used with a stem to form the masculine plural past participle of regular -ire verbs
2. Used with a stem to form the second-person plural present and imperative of regular -ire verbs
3. (mineralogy) -ite
4. (chemistry) -ite
5. (pathology) -itis

Derived terms

See also

• -osi

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈiː.teː/

Suffix

-ītē

1. ablative singular of -ītēs
2. vocative singular of -ītēs

Portuguese

Suffix

-ite f

1. (pathology) -itis (forms the names of diseases characterised by inflammation)
2. (geology) -ite (forms the names of rocks and minerals)

Synonyms

• (forming the name of rocks and minerals): -ita (more common), -ito (less common)