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

• See Usage under “its”

Synonyms

• (it is): ’tis

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

• IST sit, STI, ’tis, TIS