Skip to the word

Added 9 October 2026

pitch

/pɪt͡ʃ/ noun

In Latin: pix, bitumen Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about pitch at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A sticky, gummy substance secreted by trees; tree sap.
It is hard to get this pitch off my hand.
Anything similar to or derived from tree sap: resin; rosin.
A dark, extremely viscous material still remaining after distilling crude oil or natural tar.
They put pitch on the mast to protect it.

verb

To cover or smear with pitch.
To darken; to blacken; to obscure.

adjective

Very dark black; pitch-black.
Intense, deep, dark.

noun

A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand.
a good pitch in quoits
The act of pitching a baseball.
The pitch was low and inside.
The field on which cricket, soccer, rugby, gridiron or field hockey is played.
The teams met on the pitch.

Origin

From Middle English picche, piche, pich, from Old English piċ, from Proto-West Germanic *pik, from Latin pix. Cognate with Ancient Greek πίσσα (píssa, “pitch, tar”), Latin pīnus (“pine”). More at pine. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Pik (“pitch, tar”), Dutch pek (“pitch, tar”), German Low German Pick (“pitch, tar”), German Pech (“pitch, tar”), Catalan pega (“pitch”), Spanish pegar (“to stick, glue”), Franco-Provençal pouatche (“sap from a pine”) and French poix (“sap”). The adjective is probably back-formed from pitch-black, reinterpreting "pitch" as meaning "intense(ly)".

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Back to today's word