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# mite

«mite» in Mova's school dictionary: **A tiny animal with eight legs, related to spiders, often…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a mite, mites); adverb («a mite» — informal, old-fashioned: a little)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A tiny animal with eight legs, related to spiders, often too small to see: dust mites. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mite/#m1)

2) A small child or small creature that you feel sorry for: the poor little mite. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mite/#m2)

3) (informal, «a mite») A little bit, slightly: a mite cold. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mite/#m3)

4) (old) A very small coin or amount. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mite/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In science mites are arachnids (eight legs), not insects; dust mites live in beds and carpets and can cause allergies. In UK and Irish everyday talk «the poor little mite» shows kindness to a small child. In counting problems a mite has 8 legs.

### examples

- Dust mites live in our pillows. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mite/#x1)
- A mite has eight legs, like a spider. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mite/#x2)
- Red mites can bite chickens. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mite/#x3)
- The poor little mite was soaked in the rain. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mite/#x4)
- It's a mite chilly this morning. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mite/#x5)
- Under the microscope we saw a mite crawling on a leaf. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mite/#x6)
- 5 mites have 5 × 8 = 40 legs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mite/#x7)
- There he would find better fare than briny water and sand mites. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mite/#x8)

### note

Homophone: might (could; strength). Mites are not insects (insects have 6 legs). «A mite» meaning «a little» is old-fashioned.

### In the corpora

- [Tiny harmless mites live in the roots of the eyelashes of most adults.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/355-hair-growing-curly-and-straight-eyebrows-eyelashes-and-going-grey/11/)
- [A tiny mite in California covers about 300 body lengths a second, more than any other animal measured.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/365-tiny-champions-the-strongest-beetle-the-highest-jumping-flea-and-the-leggiest-millipede/14/)
- [Spiders are arachnids, together with scorpions, ticks and mites.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/72-insects-and-spiders/15/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «mite» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mite/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.