cite

See also: cité, citë, cítě, and c̣itë

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: sīt, IPA^(key): /saɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪt
• Homophones: sight, site

Etymology 1

From Old French citer, from Latin citare (“to cause to move, excite, summon”), frequentative of ciēre (“to rouse, excite, call”). Sense 4 is the original one.

Verb

cite (third-person singular simple present cites, present participle citing, simple past and past participle cited)

1. (transitive) To quote; to repeat, as a passage from a book, or the words of another.
   • 2013 June 7, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 18:

     WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets.

2. (transitive) To mention; to make mention of.
   • 2023 June 30, Marina Hyde, “The tide is coming in fast on Rishi Sunak – and it’s full of sewage”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Until then, the Sunak administration remains a study in ineffectuality on multiple fronts, leading Goldsmith to cite, not unreasonably, “a kind of paralysis”.

   1. To mention by way of explanation.
      • 1990 February 4, Pam Mitchell, “Pro-Union And Queer”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 29, page 18:

        Citing the risk involved with being out as a gay person and a union activist while simultaneously dealing with racism, Susan notes that there are no out gays or lesbians of color in her local, though its membership is about 80 percent people of color.

      • 2018 October 26, Chris Fitch, “Reintroduction of military conscription in Morocco”, in Geographical‎^[2], archived from the original on 2021-02-27:

        Jonathan Hill, professor of international relations in the School of Security Studies at King’s College London, points to ongoing social unrest among rural youths in Morocco as another key reason why the law was passed. He cites the 2011 Arab Spring as an indicator of where such behaviour might lead if left unchecked.

3. To list the source(s) from which one took information, words or literary or verbal context.
4. (transitive, law) To summon officially or authoritatively to appear in court.
   • 2023 August 29, “Tribal ranger draws weapon on climate activists blocking road to Burning Man; conduct under review”, in AP News‎^[3]:

     According to the tribe’s chairman, rangers cited five of the demonstrators, who had traveled to Nevada from New York, Washington, California and the European country of Malta. The chairman did not say what they were cited for.

Derived terms

• citability
• citable
• cital
• cocite
• miscite
• overcite
• re-cite
• subcite

Related terms

• citation

Translations

quote — see quote

See also

• attest
• quote

Etymology 2

From the first syllable of citation. Analogous to quote, from quotation.

Noun

cite (plural cites)

1. (informal) A citation.

   We used the number of cites as a rough measure of the significance of each published paper.

Derived terms

• citeless
• citogenesis

Translations

citation — see citation

Further reading

• “cite”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “cite”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “cite”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• -etic, CETI, EITC, Tice, etic, tice

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈt͡sɪtɛ]

Noun

cite

1. vocative singular of cit

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sit/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: citent, cites, scythe, Scythe, scythes, Scythes, site, sites

Verb

cite

1. inflection of citer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Latin

Participle

cite

1. vocative masculine singular of citus

References

• “cite”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• cite in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• cete, cetee, cetie, cety, citee, citie, citty, city, cyte, cyty, sete, scite, site, syte, syty

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French cite.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /siˈteː/, /ˈsiteː/

Noun

cite (plural cites)

1. A city (settlement larger than a town)

   Coordinate term: toun

   • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎^[4], published c. 1410, Luke 8:1, page 32r, column 1; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

     And it was doon aftirward · ⁊ [iheſus] made iourneis bi citees ⁊ caſtelis, [pꝛe]ch[in]ge ⁊ euangelizynge þe rewme of god / ⁊ twelue wiþ h[im] ·

     After that happened, Jesus made visits to cities and fortresses, preaching about and disseminating the kingdom of God with the Twelve alongside him.

2. (religion) A stronghold or fortress.
3. (rare) The people of a city.

Descendants

• English: city (see there for further descendants)
• Scots: ceety, ceetie

References

• “citẹ̄, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Portuguese

Verb

cite

1. inflection of citar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /ˈθite/ [ˈθi.t̪e]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /ˈsite/ [ˈsi.t̪e]
• Rhymes: -ite
• Syllabification: ci‧te

Verb

cite

1. inflection of citar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative