What does cital mean?
Cital is a rare English noun meaning a quotation or cited passage — a piece of text drawn from an author or work and repeated elsewhere. In older British and Scots usage, particularly in legal and administrative contexts, it could also mean a summons: an official call for someone to appear before an authority such as a court. The word derives from the Latin verb citare, 'to cause to move or summon,' the same root that gives us cite, citation, recite, incite, and excite. Although cital was never among the most common words even in its heyday, it survives in historical documents and dialectal records, offering a compact reminder of how English once formed nouns directly from verbs of quoting and summoning. Modern writers overwhelmingly prefer citation or quotation, but encountering a cital in an old text signals precisely those meanings.
A quotation or citation; a passage quoted from a text or author.
"Her lecture relied on one well-chosen cital from Milton."
Archaic; replaced by 'quotation' or 'citation' in contemporary English.
A summons or official call to appear before an authority.
"The tenant was served with a cital demanding his presence at the tribunal."
Chiefly historical, legal, or Scots dialectal.
Regular plural formation; rarely encountered given the word's rarity.
"The manuscript contained several biblical citals."
Before 'citation' took over, English speakers once reached for this forgotten cousin — a word that simply meant 'a thing cited.'
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cital
Cital comes from the Latin verb citare, meaning to summon, rouse, or cause to move, which entered English usage through Old French citer. It belongs to the same family as cite, citation, recite, and incite, all tracing back to that Latin root. The word appeared in Middle and early Modern English, with its sense of 'quotation' paralleling that of citation, while a secondary sense denoting a formal summons persisted especially in Scots and legal usage before falling into obsolescence.
How cital is actually used
Extremely rare in modern usage; found mainly in historical texts, legal contexts of earlier centuries, and Scots/dialectal writing. Writers today would normally use 'quotation' or 'citation' instead.
Easily confused with cital
A citation is the standard modern term for a quoted reference, whereas cital is a rare, archaic variant meaning essentially the same thing.
A recital is a performance or detailed account of something, while a cital is specifically a quoted passage or citation.