Noun

(en noun)

(history of science) A hypothetical particle posited by Greek philosophers as an ultimate and indivisible component of matter.

(physics, chemistry) The smallest possible amount of matter which still retains its identity as a chemical element, now known to consist of a nucleus surrounded by electrons.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author= Katie L. Burke

, magazine=(American Scientist), title= In the News , passage=Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis:

A mote of dust in a sunbeam.

The smallest, indivisible constituent part or unit of something. (Now generally interpreted as a figurative use of the physics sense, above.)

* 1835 , Sir , Sir (James Clark Ross), Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-west Passage …'', Volume 1 , pp.284-5

Towards the following morning, the thermometer fell to 5°; and at daylight, there was not an atom of water to be seen in any direction.

A very small amount (of something immaterial); a whit.

* 1873 , (Isabella Macdonald Alden) (as "Pansy"), Three People , Western Tract and Book Society (1873), page 325:

"I have hardly the faintest atom of hope," answered this honest, earnest man.

*

those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength

(mathematics) A non-zero member of a (Boolean algebra) that is not a union of any other elements.

(computing, programming, Lisp) An individual number or symbol, as opposed to a list. A scalar value.

Noun

(en noun)

A minute arachnid, of the order Acarina, of which there are many species; as, the cheese mite, sugar mite, harvest mite, etc. See Acarina.

A small coin formerly circulated in England, rated at about a third of a farthing.

*1803 , William Blake,

*:One mite wrung from the lab'rer's hands

*:Shall buy and sell the miser's lands;

A lepton, a small coin used in Palestine in the time of Christ.

A small weight; one twentieth of a grain.

Anything very small; a minute object; a very little quantity or particle. Sometimes used adverbially.

* , chapter=5

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=“Well,” I says, “I cal'late a body could get used to Tophet if he stayed there long enough.” ¶ She flared up; the least mite of a slam at Doctor Wool was enough to set her going.}}

* 1959 , Frances Cavanah, Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance , Project Gutenberg, [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17315/17315-8.txt]:

"Those trousers are a mite too big, but you'll soon grow into them."