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Definition 2024


it’s

it's

See also: its, ITS, its', and 'its

English

Alternative forms

  • i's (eye dialect)

Contraction

it’s

  1. It is.
    • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 48:
      The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about [] and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention. Partly, this is a result of how online advertising has traditionally worked: advertisers pay for clicks, and a click is a click, however it's obtained.
    it’s too expensive;  it’s coming right for us!
  2. It has.
    It’s been a long time since I’ve had cheesecake.
  3. (colloquial) There's, there is; there're, there are.
    it's a fine line between love and hate;  it's a package for you by the door
Usage notes
Synonyms
Translations

Etymology 2

From it + ’s (possessive marker).

Determiner

it's

  1. (now nonstandard) Alternative form of its
    • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, I.43:
      The manner wherewith our Lawes assay to moderate the foolish and vaine expences of table-cheare and apparell, seemeth contrarie to it’s end.
    • 1787, United States Constitution, Article I:
      No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws[.]
    • 1803, President Thomas Jefferson, Instructions to Captain Meriwether Lewis:
      The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, & such principal stream of it, as, by it’s course & communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Anagrams