Tittle
A
tittle or
superscript dot is a small distinguishing mark, such as a diacritic or the dot on a lowercase
i or
j. The tittle is an integral part of the glyph of
i and
j, but diacritic dots can appear over other letters in various languages. In most languages, the tittle of
i or
j is omitted when a diacritic is placed in the tittle's usual position, but not when the diacritic appears elsewhere. The word
tittle is scarcely used. Its most prominent occurrence is in the Christian Bible at Matthew 5:18: "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled". The quotation uses them as an example of extremely minor details. The phrase "jot and tittle" indicates that every small detail has received attention. In the Greek original translated as English "jot and tittle" are found the words
iota and
keraia. Iota is the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet. Alternatively, it may represent yodh, the smallest letter of the Hebrew and Aramaic alphabets.