Jot or tittle is a phrase that means a very small amount. Jot is derived from the Greek letter iota which is the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet, it also carries the meaning, the least part of anything. A tittle was a small dot or pen stroke used in Medieval Latin to signify a word that was abbreviated and missing letters. The phrase jot or tittle comes from the New Testament of the Bible. The passage is in Matthew 5:18, quoting the King James Version: “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
Examples
The Rules Committee can accept them all without changing a jot or tittle, it can make substantive changes to what is presented or it can throw the whole package out and start again. (U.S. News & World Report)
We are all engaged in the back and forth of politics, the jot or tittle of the process, the meaningless cable chatter of it all, the sameness of it all, be it conservative or liberal, so we lose sight of principle and of right and wrong. (The Washington Post)
To me, the danger there is that once you make it your primary spiritual mission in life to defend a questionable passage as unalterably, literally accurate down to the least jot or tittle, you open yourself up for unnecessary grief. (The Lexington Herald Leader)
Mr Lee said there was not a “jot or tittle” of evidence showing professional misconduct and that finding was not open for Justice Rares to make. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Putting a man on Mars or the Moon is not a jot or tittle as important as was our landing on Australia. (The Evening Standard)