-ite

plural -ites · alternative rare -it

1. derogatorysometimesUsed to form nouns denoting followers or adherents of a specified person, idea, doctrine, movement, etc.

   Adamsite, Campbellite, Jacobite, laborite, Mansonite, Reaganite, Thatcherite

2. Used to form nouns denoting descendants of a specified historical person, especially a biblical figure.

   Cainite, Ephraimite, Hamite, Japhetite, Lamanite

   1 more example

   There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God.

   1830, Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon, translation of original by Mormon, 4 Nephi 1:17

3. IndiaUSUsed to form demonyms.

   Brooklynite, Delhiite, Jerusalemite, Keralite, Kilgoreite, New Jerseyite, Seattleite, Seoulite, Sydneyite, Wisconsinite, Wyomingite; also see ashramite, hostelite

4. Used to form nouns denoting rocks or minerals.

   andalusite, anorthosite, anthracite, erythrite, forsterite, graphite, hawleyite, titanite

5. Used to form nouns denoting fossil organisms.

   ammonite, belemnite

6. biologyUsed to form nouns denoting segments or components of the body or an organ of the body.

   dendrite, somite

7. Used to form nouns denoting the product of a specified process or a commercially manufactured product.

   Bakelite, cordite, dynamite, ebonite, metabolite, vulcanite

8. chemistryUsed to form names of certain chemical compounds, especially salts or esters of acids whose name ends in -ous.

   bromite, chlorite, iodite, phosphite, sulfite

9. rareUsed to form nouns for kinds, mostly from bases of Ancient Greek origin.

   sporozoite, epizoite, troglobite, lychnobite

1. Forms adjectives.