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Mite

Noun
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A very small amount; also a tiny insect. In this poem it means a tiny sum of money.

Detailed Definition
In older English, a mite can mean a very small coin or an extremely small amount. Blake uses it to stress how little money can matter morally, but the word is less common today in that sense.
Example
Example in poetry:
The biblical “widow’s mite” makes the mite a very small coin with moral weight; “One mite wrung from the labourer’s hands” contrasts poverty and property; “She gave her last mite, bright as a tear” uses the coin as a concrete image of sacrifice; In modern usage, “not a mite of shade remained” preserves the sense of something tiny
Additional Notes
"Mite" in the quoted line is an older money-related usage that modern readers may not immediately know.; Found in the poem, Auguries of Innocence by William Blake
Also Known As
tiny creature diminutive being
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