Meaning & use
pit
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Meanings
nouncountableAmerican
A hard stone in the middle of some fruits, such as cherries or peaches.
Grammar: Countable: one pit, two pits. In British English, this is usually called a stone.
Patterns
- remove the pit
- a cherry pit
Be careful not to swallow the pit.
She removed the pits before making the jam.
This peach has a large pit.
nouncountable
A large hole in the ground, often dug for mining, quarrying, or as a trap.
Grammar: Countable: a deep pit, several pits. Often used with words like gravel, coal, or sand.
Patterns
- dig a pit
- fall into a pit
- a gravel pit
The workers dug a pit to extract sand.
He fell into a pit and broke his leg.
The old mine pit is now filled with water.
nouncountable
A small indentation or hollow on a surface, such as a scar left by smallpox or a natural mark.
Grammar: Countable: small pits on the skin or on a metal surface.
Patterns
- pits on the skin
- a pitted surface
The old coin had tiny pits on its surface.
His face was marked with pits from an illness.
verbtransitive
To set two people or groups against each other in a competition or conflict.
Grammar: Takes an object: pit someone against someone. Often used in the passive: they were pitted against each other.
Patterns
- pit someone against someone
- be pitted against someone
The tournament pitted the two best teams against each other.
She was pitted against a much more experienced opponent.
The debate pitted students against their teachers.
Word forms
| plural | pits |
|---|---|
| third person singular | pits |
| past tense | pitted |
| past participle | pitted |
| -ing form | pitting |
Common combinations
- cherry pit
- She spat the cherry pit into her hand.
- gravel pit
- The children were told to stay away from the gravel pit.
- pit someone against someone
- The draw pitted the champion against the young challenger.
- bottomless pit
- The cave seemed like a bottomless pit.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- pitted adjective
- Having small holes or marks on the surface, as in 'a pitted road'.
Commonly confused: pit or pity?
pit vs pity
Pity means a feeling of sadness for someone's suffering; pit is a hole or fruit stone. They sound similar but are unrelated.
Practice
In American English, what is the hard center of a cherry called?
Choose one answer.
In American English, the hard center of a cherry is called a pit. 'Stone' is the British word, 'seed' is the part that grows into a new plant (often inside the pit), and 'core' is the center of fruits like apples.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pit”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.