Items

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈaɪ.təmz/

Definitions

1. A set of distinct objects or articles that are individually considered or quantified
2. A group of separate entities or objects that can be identified and organized as a whole
3. A collection of individual objects, articles, or elements that can be recognized and treated separately or together

Etymology: The word here is the plural of "item," so its history is really the history of that singular form. Latin "item" meant "also" or "in the same manner," and it was a word that appeared in lists to link one entry to the next. Scribes writing an inventory or a legal schedule would start with "in primis" ("firstly," or "imprimis") and then introduce each following entry with "item," much as we might write "also" or "moreover." Over time, English speakers came to refer to the entries themselves by that connecting word. The sense of a separate, countable thing in a list grew out of the marker that once introduced it, so a word meaning "likewise" ended up naming the very objects being listed. The plural "items" follows the usual English pattern of adding -s to a countable noun, and it is used whenever a collection of such things is meant.

Synonyms: objects, articles, things, products, units

Antonyms: nothing, void, emptiness, absence, lack