Dictionary Home » Dictionary Definitions » i

i

Listen See in Thesaurus

The definition of i is the roman numeral for one.

(noun)

An example of i is ii meaning two.

I is defined as an incomplete grade for work in a class.

(noun)

An example of I is the letter on a report card for a class that has not been finished.

I is defined as the person who is speaking or telling the story.

(pronoun)

An example of I is someone answering that they are here.

I is the ninth letter in the English alphabet.

(noun)

An example of i is the first letter in the word "index."

See i in Webster's New World College Dictionary

or I

noun pl. i's

the ninth letter of the English alphabet: via Latin from the Greek iota, a modification of the Phoenician (Semitic yodh, a hand): this letter, first dotted in the 11th cent., was not distinguished from j until the 17th cent.
any of the speech sounds that this letter represents, as, in English, the vowel (i) of pick, (ē) of pique, or (ī) of pike, or, when it is unstressed, (ə) as in sanity, or the semivowel (y) in boil
a type or impression for i or I
the ninth in a sequence or group
an object shaped like

adjective

of i or I
ninth in a sequence or group
shaped like

noun

a Roman numeral for 1: iii = 3
Astron. the inclination of a planet's orbit to some reference plane, as the ecliptic

interest
intransitive
island(s)
isle(s)

, the square root of negative one

noun

a Roman numeral for 1; placed after another Roman numeral, it adds one unit (e.g., VI = 6), and placed before another numeral, it subtracts one unit (e.g., IV = 4)
Educ. a grade indicating incompletion of assigned work; an incomplete

pronoun pl. we

the person speaking or writing: personal pronoun in the first person singular: I is the nominative form, me the objective, mine the possessive, and myself the reflexive and intensive; my is the possessive pronominal adjective

Origin: ME i, ich, ih < OE ic, akin to Ger ich, Goth ik < IE base *ȇgom, orig. prob. neut. n. meaning “(my) presence here” > L ego, Gr egō, Sans ahám

noun pl. I's

the ego; the self

Imperator
Dentistry incisor
Independent
interstate
Island(s)
Isle(s)
Physics moment of inertia

Physics electric current
Chem. iodine

Archaic y-: iwis

forming compound words: a connective vowel orig. used for combining Latin elements only, but now used freely

See i in American Heritage Dictionary 4

or I

noun pl. i's i's or I's also is or Is

The ninth letter of the modern English alphabet.
Any of the speech sounds represented by the letter i.
The ninth in a series.
Something shaped like the letter I.

The symbol for imaginary unit.

pron.

Used to refer to oneself as speaker or writer.

noun pl. i's I's

The self; the ego.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English

Origin: , from Old English ic; see eg in Indo-European roots

Usage Note: The question of when to use nominative forms of the personal pronouns (for example, I, she, they) and when to use objective forms (for example, me, her, them) has always created controversy among grammarians and uncertainty among speakers and writers. There is no problem when the pronoun stands alone with a single verb or preposition: every native speaker says I (not me) read the book; They told him (not he); The company bought a computer for us (not we); and so forth. But the decision is more problematic in other environments. • When pronouns are joined with other nouns or pronouns by and or or, there is a widespread tendency to use the objective form even when the phrase is the subject of the sentence: Tom and her are not speaking to each other. This usage is natural in colloquial speech, but the nominative forms should be used in formal speech and writing: John and she (not her) will be giving the talk. • When pronouns joined by a conjunction occur as the object of a preposition such as between, according to, or like, many people use the nominative form where the traditional grammatical rule would require the objective; they say between you and I rather than between you and me, and so forth. Many critics have seen this construction as originating in a hypercorrection, whereby speakers who have been taught to say It is I instead of It is me come further to assume that correctness also requires between you and I in place of between you and me. This explanation of the tendency cannot be the whole story, inasmuch as the phrase between you and I occurs in Shakespeare, centuries before the prescriptive rules requiring It is I and the like were formulated. But the between you and I construction is nonetheless widely regarded as a marker of grammatical ignorance and is best avoided. • In other contexts the traditional insistence that the nominative form be used is more difficult to defend. The objective form sounds most natural when the pronoun is not grammatically related to an accompanying verb or preposition. Thus, in response to the question “Who cut down the cherry tree?” we more colloquially say “Me,” even though some grammarians have argued that I must be correct here by analogy to the form “I did”; and few speakers would accept that the sentence What, me worry? is improved if it is changed to What, I worry? The prescriptive insistence that the nominative be used in such a construction is grammatically questionable and is apt to lead to almost comical pedantries. • There is also a widespread tendency to use the objective form when a pronoun is used as a subject together with a noun in apposition, as in Us engineers were left without technical support. In formal speech or writing the nominative we would be preferable here. But when the pronoun itself appears in apposition to a subject noun phrase, the use of the nominative form may sound pedantic in a sentence such as The remaining members of the admissions committee, namely we, will have to meet next week. A writer who is uncomfortable about using the objective us here would be best advised to rewrite the sentence to avoid the difficulty. See Usage Notes at be, but, we.